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HISTORY 



OF 



AMERICAN VERSE 



HISTORY 



OF 



AMERICAN VERSE 



(1610-1897) 



BY 



JAMES L. ONDERDONK 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1 90 1 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CCNORESS, 
Two CoHita Received 

SEP. 30 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS O- XXc. N*. 

COPY B. 



f6 



.■50 
.0^ 



3 



Copyright 
By a. C. McClurg & Co. 

A.D. 1901 



P r e f a c e 



TT is a little over four years since the pages that fol- 
-*- low were prepared by their author for publication, 
but his sudden and untimely death delayed their seeing 
the light of day until the present time. The work of 
bringing them through the press has been to me a labor 
of love. It may be of interest to the reader of this 
volume to know something of its author's Hfe. 

James Lawrence Onderdonk was born at Bergen, 
Hudson County, New York, May 24, 1854. In due 
time he entered Columbia College, where in his Junior 
year he was awarded the Second Trustees' Prize in 
Greek; in his Senior year he was a member of the 
Phi Beta Kappa Society, and upon his graduation 
in 1872 he wrote the class poem and delivered an 
oration on " Free Trade." He at once entered the 
Columbia Law School; in 1874 he graduated and was 
admitted to the bar. A year later he received the de- 
gree of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater. For 
three years he practised law in New York City, and 
during that time published a " Political Map of the 
United States," which attracted considerable attention, 



vi PREFACE 

and was favorably noticed by many of the leading 
papers throughout the country. In 1878 ill-health com- 
pelled him to give up the practice of his profession in 
New York City, and he went West, locating for a short 
period of time at Corinne, Utah, where he served a term 
as Prosecuting Attorney. Two years later we find him 
representing Lemhi County, Idaho, in the lower house 
of legislature of that territory. His scholarship, energy, 
integrity, and courage in defending a cause once he had 
given to it his adherence, could not fail to attract atten- 
tion, and he was called to fill posts of responsibility. In 
1 88 1 he was Territorial Controller; at the expiration of 
his term of office he was appointed Superintendent of 
Instruction for the Territory, and he continued in this 
office until 1885. His reports written in his various 
official capacities show a statesman's comprehension of 
the nature of the problems that confronted him, and a 
keen appreciation of the future that lay before the 
Territory. Mr. Onderdonk proved himself to be a 
man of remarkable versatility, whose patriotism was 
of the highest type. 

In 1873 Mr. Onderdonk began to contribute articles 
on literary subjects to the columns of various news- 
papers and literary journals. Wherever he chanced to 
be living, he continued to prosecute his studies in litera- 
ture, and numerous articles upon his favorite subject 
poured from his pen. This love of literary work prob- 
ably was the reason for his accepting, in 1886, the posi- 
tion of Editor of " The Portland Daily News." After 



PREFACE vii 

a little over a year he moved to Chicago, where he 
resumed the practice of his profession, at the same time 
contributing a large number of articles to the leading 
reviews and newspapers, upon literary and timely sub- 
jects. It was during the years spent in this city that he 
wrote the pages that follow. In 1898 he went to Alaska 
to obtain material for a book on that Territory, and inci- 
dentally to do some prospecting, and there, December 
20, 1899, he died, at the age of forty -five. 

This outline may assist the reader to a more satisfac- 
tory appreciation of this volume than he otherwise would 
have. Had Mr. Onderdonk lived to superintend the 
book's publication he would doubtless have revised and 
extended his notices of certain poets whom he briefly 
mentions in his concluding chapter. While I am aware 
that as these notices stand they are not altogether so 
full and explicit as their subjects deserve, yet they are 
as he wrote them, an inherent part of the volume, and 
therefore I have not felt at liberty to change them. For 
I am persuaded that however much the reader may dif- 
fer from the author's estimate of a poet or a poem, all 
will applaud the spirit in which that estimate is con- 
ceived and offered. 

WILLIAM HOLMES ONDERDONK. 
EvANSTON, III., August, 1901. 



Contents 

CHAPTER I 

Voices from the Wilderness. — 1610-1708 

Fagb 
Introductory. — The Elizabethan Era. — First American ballad. — 
George Sandys and his translation. — Maryland and Virginia 
writers. — Meagre achievement of the Southern Colonies . . 13 

CHAPTER II 

The Puritan Muse. — 1624-1765 

Puritan civilization. — Bay Psalm Book. — Elegiac verse. — Mrs. 
Anne Bradstreet as "The Tenth Muse." — Puritanism in the 
later generation. — Apotheosis of the Doleful. — Michael Wig- 
glesworth and his Gloomy Epic. — Death and the tomb the 
most prolific topics. — First native American poet. — Influence 
of Waller succeeded by that of Pope. — Byles and Green. — 
Close of the Gloomy Period 23 

CHAPTER III 

Literature in the Middle Colonies. — 1688-1765 

Pennsylvania writers. — Slight literary influence of the Quakers. — 
Benjamin Franklin and the Junto. — James Ralph. — Satir- 
ized by Pope. — Thomas Godfrey, first native dramatist. — 
Nathaniel Evans. — His tribute to science. — Rogers and his 
drama, " Ponteach." — Colonial New York. — The Dutch 
poets. — William Livingston and his " Philosophic Solitude " 47 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 
Hints of Nationalism. — 1 725-1 776 

Pagb 
Early ballads. — The French and Indian wars. — " Pietas et Gratu- 

latio." — Political transitions traceable in our literature. — 
Virginia the pioneer in Revolutionary verse. — Episodes lead- 
ing up to the war celebrated 60 

CHAPTER V 
Freneau and the Connecticut Choir. — 1765-1815 
" Laureate of the Revolution." — Superiority of Freneau's work. 
— " Cantos from a Prison Ship." — His Indian poems. — Paral- 
leled by Schiller, Campbell, and Scott. — " The House of 
Night." — First American poem showing imagination. — First 
national poet. — Perverted literary taste of the time. — The 
Connecticut Nine. — " The Hartford Wits." — Honorable ser- 
vices to the country 75 

CHAPTER VI 

Della Cruscan Echoes. — 1785-1815 
Relative importance of female writers. — Della Cruscanism. — 
Championed by Robert Treat Paine and Mrs. Morton. — Satir- 
ized by Clifton and Tyler. — Ossianic and other echoes. — 
Chaotic condition of American literature at close of War of 
1812 . 103 

CHAPTER VII 

Birth of the Artistic Spirit. — 1813-1839 

Growth of American art and its effect. — Washington Allston. — 
Artist and poet. — R. H. Dana, Sr. — His pioneer services to 
literature. — Charles Sprague. — John Pierpont and his reform 
verse. — Influence of Pope succeeded by that of Wordsworth 
and Coleridge 119 

CHAPTER VIII 

"The Knickerbocker School." — 1807-1840 

Literature on Manhattan Island. — "The Salmagundi Papers." — 
Paulding and his Epic. — " The Croakers." — Drake and 
Halleck. — Satiric poetry. — Period of " Annuals." — Sands, 
Bryant, and Verplanck. — N. P. Willis, Poet of Society. — 
Outlived his fame. — Characteristics of the Knickerbocker 
writers. — " The Old Guard of American Literature " , . . 130 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER IX 
Poets of Sentiment and Passion. — 1815-1839 

' . . . . Page 

Unnatural sentimentalism. — Hillhouse and Brainerd. — Year 1821 

important in our literature. — Percival and his Byronic tenden- 
cies. — Mrs. Sigourney and Mrs. Brooks. — John Neal. — 
Minor singers from the South. — Dabney and Maxwell. — 
Wilde and his famous " Stanzas." — Pinckney as a song-writer. 

— Religious poetry. — Robert Dinsmore, pioneer of American 
dialect verse. — Transition era from the mechanical and arti- 
ficial to the creative and natural. — American provincialism. — 
Anti-slavery verse 151 

CHAPTER X 

Poets of Nature and American Life. — 18 17-1870 

William Cullen Bryant. — His breadth of mind. — Went direct to 
nature. — His reserve. — His Hellenic cast of mind. — His na- 
ture poetry. — Contrasted with Whitman. — Minor poets of 
nature. — "Evolution of Nature in Literature." — Early Ameri- 
can idyls. — Home themes. — Source of Whittier's influence. 

— Folk songs and ballads. — Legendary poems. — Literature 
among the mill operatives. — Miss Lucy Larcom. — Holland 
and his didacticism. — The West in literature. — Poetry of 
pioneer life. — Southern literature. — Foster's plantation songs. 

— Verse of the Mexican and Civil Wars. — Characteristics of 
American home poetry 172 

CHAPTER XI 

Idyllic and Lyric Poets. — 1839-1870 

Henry W. Longfellow. — A new literary era. — Advance shown in 
his successive volumes. — Early lyrics. — " Evangeline." — Eng- 
lish hexameters. — " Miles Standish," " Hiawatha," and other 
" American " conceptions. — Longfellow on the imagination. — 
Minor poets of culture. — Story, Parsons, Boker. — Bayard 
Taylor. — " Lars." — Influence of culture. — Poe as a lyric poet. 

— Early struggles. — Pike's "Isidore " and Poe's "Lenore." — 
Worship of the beautiful. — Literary women friendly to Poe. 

— Minor lyric poets. — Read and Stoddard. — The Gary sisters. 

— Improvement in magazine literature. — Bulk of American 
verse naturally lyrical 213 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XII 
Humor and Satire. — 1836-1870 

Pagb 
Early American humor. — Holmes and Lowell highest types of 

American wit. — Dr. Holmes as a humorist. — Lowell's great- 
ness as a satiric poet. — " The Biglow Papers." — " Fable for 
Critics." — Characteristics. — Minor poets of humor. — Saxe, 
Butler, and Leland. — Characteristics of American humor . . 268 

CHAPTER XIII 

Idealism and Realism. — 1836-1870 

Religious Renaissance in New England. — " Transcendentalism ; " 
" The Dial " and its contributors ; Brook Farm. — Emerson's 
career. — Carlyle on Transcendentalism. — Minor poets of 
idealism. — Transcendentalism and abolitionism. — The pro- 
test of realism. — Walt Whitman and his characteristics. — 
Close of the Golden Era of American Song. — Longfellow the 
poet of the closing and Bret Harte of the opening one . . . 300 

CHAPTER XIV 

The Aftermath. — 1870-1897 

New era after the war. — Rise of Bret Harte and John Hay. — 
"Joaquin " Miller and his unrealism. — The Middle West. — 
Piatt, Venable, Carleton, Riley. — The new South. — Lanier 
and Thompson. — Mrs. Preston and local Southern singers. — 
Contemporary verse in New England and the Middle States. 

— Edmund C. Stedman, poet and critic. — T. B. Aldrich. — 
Howells, Trowbridge, Winter, Gilder, Fawcett, DeKay, La- 
throp. — Poets born since 1850 too close for fair criticism. 

— Feminine mind in recent literature. — " H. H." — Miss 
Lazarus, Mrs. Thaxter, and Miss Thomas. — Last words. — 
Concurrent development of American literature and democracy. 

— Spirit of each period reflected in its verse. — Conspicuous 
exception. — Present social and industrial agitation finds no 
voice in song. — Is it from a lack of true ideals among modern 
reformers ? 342 

INDEXES , 

I. Authors and Subjects 379 

II. First Lines of Poems 393 



History of American Verse 



CHAPTER I 

VOICES FROM J'HE WILDERNESS 

1610-1708 

THE age of romance had not entirely ceased in 
England at the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. It was, indeed, an era of reaction and unrest, 
but the afterglow of chivalry still illumined the social 
horizon. The feelings which animated the crusaders 
of the Middle Ages yet lingered in a degree, and in- 
spired hardy adventurers to cross the seas, and pene- 
trate the mysteries of that " Saturnian continent " 
which had lain hidden in the West, and for more 
than a century after its discovery had offered so little 
encouragement to colonists. This enthusiasm was, to 
be sure, a kind of earnestness akin to fanaticism, 
which, in the name of religion and humanity, tor- 
mented, maimed and burnt, beheaded, outraged and 
tortured; but for all it was a spirit of exploration, of 
investigation, and of free inquiry, though still em- 
bodied in old-world superstitions. 

It was not long before false romanticism was to be 
ridiculed out of Europe. The year in which George 
Weymouth made his daring voyage to the then un- 
known coast of Maine witnessed the first appearance 
of Cervantes' great work; though it was not until five 
years after the first settlement of Jamestown that 



14 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

"Don Quixote" became intelligible to English readers 
through Skelton's translation. Certainly no expedi- 
tion ever left Salamanca more quixotic in its nature 
than that composed of men who despised labor, "dis- 
solute gallants, broken tradesmen, gentlemen impov- 
erished in spirit and in fortune, rakes and libertines, 
men more fitted to corrupt than to found a common- 
wealth," such as formed the nucleus of English civili- 
zation in America in 1607. But with all its faults it 
was a glorious era in England's history, those early 
years of the seventeenth century. Never before had 
there assembled so many brilliant wits, writers, and 
thinkers, as adorned the London of that day. The 
Elizabethan poets and dramatists still continue to 
influence modern thought, and seem certain to retain 
a commanding position as long as such a thing as lit- 
erature exists. Their very names are indissolubly 
connected with the history of civilization. For three 
centuries their works have furnished inspiration to the 
wisest minds in all directions of intellectual activity. 

The circumstances attending the founding of our 
nation were a blending of the simple and complex. 
There is no twilight dawn in which cluster the poetic 
legends that lend such a charm to the early traditions 
of other races. The hard, actual strife of the settlers 
against savage nature early dispelled fantastic notions 
of an earthly paradise or a new Arcadia. Life in the 
New World was filled with far sterner realities than in 
the Old. The colonists were themselves too busy in 
acting the romance of history to care about reading 
or writing it. They were, in a certain sense, the 
romancists of the world. All unconsciously to them- 
selves, they were the actors in the great epic of 
humanity, laying broad and deep the foundations of 



VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS 15 

a civilization distinct from any that up to that time 
had ever been realized. Under their own exertions 
they beheld iorests merging into farm-lands, the wil- 
derness gradually blossoming into towns and villages, 
the original lords of the soil, at first only objects of 
terror, slowly receding deeper into the forest, or dis- 
appearing altogether. Burning homesteads and mid- 
night massacres told the oft-recurring tragedy of their 
ordinary life. At the same time, removed from old- 
world conventionalisms, the cause of common human- 
ity was receiving added dignity, and the spirit of 
conservative democracy was gaining strength from 
common hardships at home, and oppression from 
abroad. In the apparently endless struggle against 
material obstacles the development of higher litera- 
ture was impossible. Colonialism is inconsistent with 
a noble literature. Like the arid lands of the West, 
our literary soil was rich in essential elements, but 
needed some irrigating force to quicken it into fertil- 
ity. Such a force could be found in nationalism 
alone. 

The growth of the colonies presents a singular spec- 
tacle of contrary forces developing in parallel lines. 
In the South a social aristocracy entrenched itself amid 
the crudest environments. The gradual growth of the 
spirit of liberty kept pace with the increasing domi- 
nance of slavery. Popular education was ignored and 
a free press unknown. Literature of any sort was 
tabooed. No native poet worthy even a relatively 
conspicuous place in our literature appeared in the 
South prior to the Revolution. 

The middle colonies lacked many of the picturesque 
characteristics of either New England or the South. 
Politically, they were further advanced than their 



1 6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

eastern neighbors. The benign influence of William 
of Orange had so far stimulated native Dutch stagna- 
tion that religious freedom was introduced in New 
Netherlands at a very early date. In Pennsylvania 
liberty of conscience was recognized, and some of the 
earliest utterances in the cause of freedom came from 
Philadelphia. But the contributions by the middle 
colonies to higher literature prior to 1775 were light. 

The social forces in New England were equally con- 
flicting. Its civilization was designed as a protest 
against established forms in England. Yet it devel- 
oped a hierarchy fully as despotic as any in the old 
world. It denounced the superstitions of Anglicanism 
and Romanism, while it made heresy a crime, and 
murdered helpless men and women charged with witch- 
craft. Freedom of the press as now understood was 
unknown. Yet it cannot be denied that New England 
was intellectually far stronger than its southern com- 
petitors. The prevalence of education developed a 
native average intelligence to which neither the south- 
ern nor the middle colonies could aspire. The native 
New England divines were men of strong intellectual 
force, however misapplied that force may have been. 
The New England theocracy of the eighteenth century 
was the lineal predecessor of at least one distinctively 
American school of literature. 

In such barren ground for six generations of Ameri- 
can civilization higher literature struggled for a foot- 
hold. Such flowers of poetry as succeeded in taking 
root in the forbidding soil are now generally interest- 
ing as historical curiosities rather than for any in- 
trinsic beauty. Yet though in seeking to trace the 
influence of colonial literature upon the development 
of genuine poetry we may have to traverse many a 



VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS 17 

barren waste, we may occasionally meet with some 
modest blossom that will be not the less welcome on 
account of its- rarity. 

It was in the ill-starred colony at Jamestown that 
American literature had its origin. It was a trans- 
planted product, of course, but it is interesting to 
note that even amid such discouraging surroundings 
the spirit of song was not entirely stifled. 

The first published metrical effusion on American 
themes by one who had lived in America seems to 
have been produced by Mr. R. Rich, one of the earli- 
est arrivals in Jamestown, author of " Newes from 
Virginia." 

But one copy of the original edition is known to 
exist. This was discovered in a volume of tracts 
about 1864 by Mr. Halliwell, the well-known Shakes- 
pearean scholar. Twenty-five copies were printed in 
1865, and fifteen of these destroyed. In 1874 twenty- 
five additional copies were printed in London for Ber- 
nard Quaritch. It is from one of the latter that our 
extracts are made. Of the author, but little is known 
beyond what is stated in the ballad itself. He re- 
turned to England with Captain Newport, where he 
published his work and sought to correct existing 
notions and to induce others to return with him. 
Whether he ever returned is unknown. The title- 
page is according to the fashion of the time, and reads 
as follows: — 

" Newes from Virginia. The Lost Flocke Triumphant. With 
the happy arrival of that famous and worthy knight Sr. Thomas 
Gates; and the well reputed and valiant Captain Mr. Chris- 
topher Newporte, and others, into England. With the maner 
of their distress in the Island of Devils (otherwise called Ber- 
moothawes) where they remayned 42 weeks, and builded two 



i8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Pynaces, in which they returned into Virginia. By R. Rich, 
Gent., One of the Voyage. London. Printed by Edw. AUde, 
and are to be sold by John Wright, at Christ Church dore, 
1610." 

It is not a great poem by any means, and frequently 
lapses into absurdest doggerel ; yet it breathes a cer- 
tain spirit of Americanism lacking in some of the 
more artificial work of the later colonial period. After 
a breezy introduction the author opens his case in 
verse. He gives a description of the wreck, the ad- 
ventures on the "iland" of "Bermoothawes," the 
building of two gallant "pynases" of "seader tree," 
the safe arrival of the party in Virginia, and the 
Arcadian delights of life in the new world. Possibly 
there is a poetic license in describing the reformatory 
influences of the Virginia colony. 

" Those men that vagrants liv'd with us, have there deserved well ; 
Their governour writes in their praise, as divers letters tel. 

" And to th' adventurers thus he writes, be not dismay'd at all, 
For scandal cannot do us wrong, God will not let us fall. 
Let England knowe oure willingnesse, for that our worke is good. 
We hope to plant a nation, where none before hath stood." 

The natural attractions of the country and advan- 
tages accorded settlers are set forth, and the " Poem " 
is brought to a close with a prayer to Heaven for 
assistance. 

This ballad was published twenty-one years before 
the "Sea Marke" by Captain John Smith, who is 
usually regarded as the earliest American author. 
Neither of these two writers can lay any claim to 
poetic genius. 

It was only appropriate that the first purely literary 
creation of a transplanted people should be in the 



VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS 19 

shape of translation. The claims of such a work to 
a place in American literature, it is true, are most 
shadowy. The work of a native of England in inter- 
preting the writings of a native of Italy is hardly one 
to which Americans, on the score of nationality, can 
base any strong title. But as the first really poetic 
effort produced in America, its importance becomes 
manifest. 

George Sandys (i 577-1644) was an Oxford graduate, 
and had already written some excellent books of travel, 
when in 162 1 he was appointed treasurer of the Vir- 
ginia colony. 

Nothing could be more discouraging to literary life 
than the condition of the Jamestown settlement at 
this time. It was one of the most hopeless periods 
in the colony's history. Deprived of all the condi- 
tions that make life attractive to one of his kind, sur- 
rounded by uncongenial adventurers, and constantly 
threatened by barbaric foes, Sandys in his self-imposed 
banishment must have appreciated the feelings of his 
favorite Roman, exiled for years to the barbaric wil- 
derness about the mouth of the Danube. Unlike the 
Roman poet, however, his translator in going into exile 
cannot be said to have left his genius behind him, for 
our poet-traveller never lost heart in the face of great 
discouragement. The work begun by him in England 
was completed in the American wilderness. The last 
ten of the fifteen books of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" 
were translated in the Jamestown colony, and in this 
effort of Sandys is embodied the new world's first con- 
tribution to genuine literature. 

Sandys also translated part of the^neid, the Psalms, 
and the Song of Solomon. He remained in America 
several years, but all his attention was not engrossed 



20 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

by official and literary duties. He is said to have 
built the first water-mill, and to have been interested 
in ironwork and shipbuilding in the colony. In 
1626 the completed volume of the " Metamorphoses " 
was published in London. The dedication of the 
book is to "The Most High and Mightie Prince 
Charles, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland," 
and concludes with the words — 

" It needeth more than a single denization, being a double 
stranger, sprung from the stock of the ancient Romans, but 
bred in the new world of ihe rudeness whereof it cannot but 
participate, especially having Warres and Tumults to bring it to 
light instead of the Muses. But however unperfect, your favor 
is able to supply, and to make it worthy of life, if you judge it 
not unworthy of your royal patronage." 

The work did not have to depend on royal patronage 
for its support. As a piece of scholarly, finished verse- 
making, this translation is not surpassed by anything 
produced during our colonial period. It received the 
approbation of great poets and critics. Dryden and 
Pope both praised it for its scholarship and poetic 
spirit. If not so polished as Dryden's Virgil or 
Pope's Homer, it still deserves high rank in the lit- 
erature of translations. The last poet of the Augustan 
era born in the last year of the Roman republic was 
the first to receive attention in the American colonies. 
Americans certainly have no reason to feel anything 
but gratification at the first literary expression from 
this continent. 

Forty years after the appearance of Sandys' transla- 
tion, the rollicking figure of George Alsop emerged 
from the Maryland wilderness with his farrago of 
prose and verse, entitled " A Character of the Province 
of Maryland." The rhyming doggerel at the close of 



VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS 21 

each chapter is beneath criticism, hardly possessing 
even the merit of a literary curiosity. Alsop lived in 
that province |rom 1659 to 1663. In describing the 
virtues of his Marylanders, he declares: — 

" Here if the lawyer had nothing else to maintain him but 
his brawling, he might button up his chops, and burn his buck- 
ram bag, or else hang it upon a pin until its antiquity had eaten 
it up with dirt and dust ; then with a spade, like his grandsire 
Adam, turn up the face of creation, purchasing his bread by 
the sweat of his brows, that before was got by the motionated 
waterworks of his jaws, . . . The Anabaptists have little to say 
here, as well as in other places since the ghost of John of Leyden 
haunts their conventicles. The Adamite, Ranter, and Fifth 
Monarchy men, Maryland cannot, nay, will not digest such 
corroding morsels; as that this province is an utter enemy 
to blasphemous and zealous imprecations, drained from the 
limbec of Hellish and damnable spirits as well as profuse 
profaneness that issues from the prodigality of none but crack- 
brained sots." 

" 'T is said the gods lower down that chain above 
That ties both prince and subject up in love: 
Few, Maryland, in this can boast but you, 
Live ever blest, and let those clouds that do 
Eclipse most states be always lights to you. 
And dwelling so, you may forever be 
The only emblem of tranquillity." 

Colonial Maryland does not seem to have been espe- 
cially fortunate in its poets. In 1708 Ebenezer Cook 
published in London "The Sot-Weed Factor, or a 
Voyage to Maryland," describing the laws, courts, and 
constitutions of the country, "and also the buildings, 
feasts, frolics, entertainments and drunken humors of 
the inhabitants in that part of America." 

It is written with all the exaggeration, crudeness, 
and coarseness of current English satiric verse, but is 



22 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

lit up with flashes of humor that make parts of it still 
readable. Every one is the reverse of what he should 
be. The Maryland men are all rogues and the women 
no better. Swindled at every turn, the narrator flees 
the country in rage, flinging upon it a withering curse, 
in which direful fates are invoked upon unhappy Mary- 
land and her inhabitants. As Cook seems never to 
have been identified with the country, his right to a 
place in our national literature may be questioned. 
At all events, Marylanders may be pardoned for re- 
linquishing any claim to this amusing but abusive 
satirist. 

If under the repressive rule that marked the thirty- 
six years of Governor Berkeley's administration in 
Virginia, the voice of freedom ever found expression, 
nothing of interest has been preserved save the re- 
markable eulogy on the heroic Nathaniel Bacon in 
1676. This eulogy, written shortly after the death of 
the "general by consent of the people," has become 
familiar to many readers by its frequent republica- 
tion. As his "rebellion" was a significant feature 
in the political development of the country, so his 
epitaph from a friendly hand offers the most original 
literary achievement of which the early southern colon- 
ists can boast. 

With the death of Nathaniel Bacon civil liberty in 
Virginia was crushed, and with it all attempts at a 
high grade of literature. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PURITAN MUSE 

1624-1765 

GLOOMY and colorless the New England civiliza- 
tion certainly was, from an aesthetic point of 
view. And no less certainly was it answerable for 
many grotesque vagaries. To the Puritans the world 
was a vale of tears, and the beautiful and the cheerful 
were but hollow mockeries. In the motherland they 
early denounced poets as "caterpillars of the common- 
wealth," though the greatest poet of his generation 
was an out and out Puritan. But after all the exag- 
geration that panegyric and vituperation alike have 
imposed upon their memory, the early Puritans still 
stand for the great moral force of their age. They 
betray much of the bigotry, intolerance, and even 
superstition of their times ; but through it all runs a 
vein of heroic endurance, of steadfastness to principle, 
of resignation under sorrow, and a triumphant faith 
that must tone down many of the rough edges in their 
character. Yet while this system could produce in 
England a Milton and a Bunyan, in America the voice 
of the sublime and the beautiful was strangled in the 
thralls of theologic disputation. 

William Morrell's "Nova Anglia " (1624), and 
William Wood's "New England's Prospect" (1634), 
metrical effusions of little merit, are entitled to men- 
tion on account of priority, not as representing Puri- 
tanism. But even the Puritan divines paid some 



24 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

homage to a lugubrious muse, for a number of them 
wrote verses of varying degrees of wretchedness. That 
they could not all write flowing lines for devotional 
use became a matter of grievous embarrassment. It 
was easy enough to reject written prayers, but extem- 
poraneous praise proved a stumbling-block. It was 
necessary, as Richard Mather says, to have some writ- 
ten form, "because every good minister hath not a 
gift of spirituall poetry to compose extemporaneously 
psalmes as he hath of prayer." 

Accordingly a triumvirate composed of Richard 
Mather, Thomas Welde, and John Eliot labored long 
and earnestly to supply the crying need. The result 
was the appearance of the first book of any importance 
printed in America. The " Bay Psalm-Book " was 
published in 1640, and, with some modifications, for 
more than a century retained its prestige as the chief 
devotional book of the colony. By 1750 it had passed 
through twenty-seven editions. 

The preface by Richard Mather, from which we have 
already quoted, further says : — 

" If therefore the verses are not always so smooth and ele- 
gant as some may desire or expect ; let them consider that God's 
Altar needs not our pollishings ; Ex. 20. for wee have respected 
rather a plaine translation then to smooth our verses with the 
sweetness of any paraphrase, and soe have attended Conscience 
rather than Elegance, fidelity rather than poetry, in translating 
the hebrew words into english language, and David's poetry 
into english meetre ; that soe we may sing in Sion the Lords 
songs of prayse according to his owne will ; untill hee take us 
from hence, and wipe away all our teares, & bid us enter 
into our masters ioye to sing eternall Halleluiahs." 

That little attention was given to elegance or beauty 
will not be disputed. Yet did not their "Conscience," 



THE PURITAN MUSE 25 

which they claim specially to have "attended," suffer 
a twinge when the grandly sonorous English of the 
standard tr§inslation of the Nineteenth Psalm, "The 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth His handiwork," was mutilated as follows? — 

" The heavens doe declare 
the majesty of God ; 
also the firmament shews forth 
his handy-work abroad. 

2 " Day speaks to day, knowledge 

night hath to night declar'd. 

3 There neither speach nor language is, 

where their voyce is not heard. 

4 Through all the earth their line 

is gone forth, & unto 
the utmost end of all the world, 

their speaches reach also ; 
A Tabernacle hee 

in them pitcht for the Sun. 

5 Who Bridegroom like from 's chamber goes 

glad Giant's-race to run. 

6 From heaven's utmost end, 

his course and compassing ; 
to ends of it, & from the heat 
thereof is hid nothing." 

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; 
the world and they that dwell therein, " becomes Puri- 
tanized in this strain : — 

" The earth lehovahs is, 
and the fulnesse of it ; 
the habitable world, & they 
that there upon doe sit." 

The title-page of the Psalm-Book contains the quo- 
tation from the Epistle of St. James, chapter v. : " If 
any be afflicted, let him pray ; and if any be merry, let 
him sing psalmes." It is difficult to conceive the 



26 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

degree of merriment that could find expression in this 
rendition of the Sixty-ninth Psalm : — 

" The waters in unto my soule 
are come, o God me save, 

2 " I am in muddy deep sunk downe, 

where I no standing have : 

into deep waters I am come, 

where floods me overflow. 

3 I of my crying weary am, 

my throat is dryed soe." 

A second edition was published in 1647. But in 
the words of Cotton Mather, " It was thought that a 
little more of art was to be employed upon them; 
and for that cause they were committed unto Mr. 
Dunster," of Harvard, who, with the assistance of 
Richard Lyon, "revised and refined this translation." 
This third edition was printed in 1650. It was en- 
riched by the addition of some "Scripture Songs," 
said to be the work of Mr. Lyon. The most familiar 
of these is " The Song of Deborah and Barak. " 

The first ambitious poetical efforts of the early 
colonial period, both in Virginia and in Massachu- 
setts, were in the direction of translation. It was too 
early for a distinctively local literature, and in these 
efforts may be seen a fairly representative line of 
thought. The Virginia colonist found congenial work 
in translating the polished and often impure writings 
of a heathen poet. The New Englanders found equally 
congenial work in translating the rugged but exalted 
strains of the Hebrew poet. The tendencies of each 
were characteristic. The heathen appears in polished, 
stately English; the inspired Hebrew in crabbed, 
knotty, disjointed lines that writhe and twist in their 
contortions to become metrical. Yet the Bay Psalm- 



THE PURITAN MUSE 27 

Book, repellant as it is to modern taste, exerted a 
mighty influence in shaping the character of thou- 
sands for three generations. The more elegant work 
of the southern colonists never became a household 
classic, though after the lapse of two and a half cen- 
turies it remains much more readable than does the 
work of the Puritan junto. ^ 

There is much in the externals of the lives and 
works of the Puritan divines to cause flippant ridicule 
to-day. Yet life was a terribly earnest thing for them. 
It was through their earnestness, convictions, and sin- 
cere faith that they accomplished what they did. 
Literature early gained a foothold in New England. 
It was not an exhilarating, stimulating product. But 
it was something. In order to obtain a true concep- 
tion of American literature, it should be constantly 
borne in mind that its foundation was on the broad 
rocks of Protestant theology, a foundation substantial 
enough to endure through the ages, though in viewing 
the superstructure we sometimes lose sight of this sup- 
port. It is true, poetry could bloom only in the crev- 
ices of such rocks, and was of too feeble a growth long 
to retain its beauty. Yet through the storms of cen- 
turies those stern crags of Puritan morality trans- 
mitted their veins of pure gold, invisible to the eye, 
but appearing as genuine metal in a later epoch. 

The theology of the seventeenth century was the 
legitimate progenitor of much that is best in Ameri- 
can poetry. To the severe arbitrament of an unyield- 
ing conscience was submitted every question, however 

1 Copies of the Bay Psalm-Book are of course exceedingly rare, 
though at least seven copies of the first edition are now known to be 
in existence. See Miss A. M. Earle's excellent little book, " The 
Sabbath in Puritan New England/' ch. xi. (N. Y., 1891). 



28 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

trivial, of life and works. It is this loyalty to con- 
science that is the pride and glory of the best of 
American poetry. There is not a lin^ in Bryant or 
Longfellow, Emerson or Holmes, Lowell or Whittier, 
themselves all descendants of early New Englanders, 
that, even by indirection, breathes an impure thought. 
It is to this stern rock of Puritan theology, rather 
than to the few meagre flowers that bloom about its 
base, that we must trace the primal springs of Ameri- 
can verse. 

Nothing could be further from the purpose of this 
work than a discussion of the forms of early New 
England theology. They are referred to only so far 
as may be necessary to a correct understanding of our 
literary development. Thomas Hooker, John Cotton, 
Peter Bulkeley, and other worthies of English birth 
and American residence, were each and all contribut- 
ing to the cause of literature. Few of them scrupled 
to throw a sombre drapery in the form of verse around 
their less ponderous efforts. In later times they even 
indulged in elephantine gambols supposed to be grace- 
ful, as when Cotton Mather gives vent to this strained 
fancy, — " Mr. Cotton, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone, 
which glorious triumvirate coming together, made the 
poor people in the wilderness to say, that the God of 
Heaven had supplied them with what would in some 
sort answer their three great necessities; Cotton for 
their clothing, Hooker ior thQii fishing, and Stone iox 
their building." 

The death of Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, the fore- 
most divine of his day in this country, furnished 
abundant opportunity for their mournful Muse. She 
certainly rose to the dignity of the occasion, for never 
before in New England had there been such a sponta- 



THE PURITAN MUSE 29 

neous tribute of prose and verse as bore testimony to 
the real greatness and goodness of the man. Among 
those who ^sang his requiem was Peter Bulkeley, who 
wrote both Latin and English verse, and who bewailed 
his country's loss in a poem entitled, — 

" A lamentation for the death of that precious and worthy 
Minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker, who died July 7, 
1647, as the sun was setting. The same hour of the day died 
blessed Calvin, that glorious light. 

" Let Hartford sigh and say, I 've lost a treasure, 
Let all New England mourn at God's displeasure . . . 
Of preaching he had learn'd the Tightest art, 
To every one dividing his own part, 
Each ear that heard him said. He spoke to me, 
So piercing was his holy ministry. 
His life did shine, time's changes stain'd it not, 
Envy itself could not there find a spot." 

The writer of the foregoing lines was himself a 
leader in the colony. The history of Peter Bulkeley 
and his descendants is interesting as being in itself 
typical of the development of one line of American 
thought. According to Cotton Mather, Bulkeley " was 
descended of an Honourable family in Bedfordshire. 
He was born at Woodhul, in Bedfordshire January 
31st, 1582. His Education was answerable to his 
Original, it was Learned, it was Genteel, and, which 
was the top of it all, it was very Pious. At length it 
made him a Bacheller of Divinity, and a Fellow of 
Saint John' s Colledge in Cambridge." 

After twenty-one years of service in the English 
church he incurred, through some heterodox notions, 
the hostility of the tyrannical Laud, and was obliged 
to flee to America. First settling at Cambridge, he 
afterward removed to the banks of the Musketaquid, 
"and founded the town destined to be famous to all 



3o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

ages as Concord." There "supreme over his people's 
bodies and souls, he spent the remainder of his days a 
protestant Pope, a republican monarch." 

By an easy transition from Anglicanism to Calvin- 
ism, from Calvinism to Unitarianism, and from Uni- 
tarianism to Liberalism, the principles of Bulkeley, 
once Episcopal priest and fellow of St. John's College, 
developed through direct lineal descent into those of 
Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Concord School of 
Philosophy. In the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, Bulkeley published his "Gospel Covenant," 
which seems in some passages to foreshadow the 
spirit of his illustrious descendant. 

John Cotton was one of the intellectual giants of 
the pulpit, but his poetic efforts were puerile. He 
wrote a rhymed epitaph on his son, another on his 
daughter, and one on both together. His elegy on 
Mr. Hooker was even worse than that written by 
Mr. Bulkeley. After his own death, Mr. Cotton was 
made the subject of a famous elegy by the first gradu- 
ate of Harvard College, Benjamin Woodbridge, 

Thus far our attention has been occupied chiefly 
with the efforts of scholars who wrote verses. In no 
sense of the word were they poets. Their Muse was 
of the most solemn cast. Her favorite resort seems to 
have been the undertakers' shops rather than the Cas- 
talian Springs of Parnassus. One can never hear the 
hoof-beats of the Puritan Pegasus without expecting to 
see a hearse drawn behind. Any change, therefore, 
from the dreary level of rhymed elegies, obituaries, 
and epitaphs must prove a relief. In the year 1650 
such a change occurred. 

Anne Bradstreet, the daughter of Thomas Dudley, 
was born in Northampton, England, about 1612. 



THE PURITAN MUSE 31 

When but sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet, 
afterward colonial governor. Two years after her 
marriage she accompanied her husband to America. 
She was a gifted woman, possessed of a sensitive, 
refined nature, and bore with Christian resignation 
the fate which doomed her to a life of hardship in the 
wilderness, when every impulse of her nature must 
have yearned for the culture and society of her native 
land. That she was an omnivorous reader her works 
abundantly testify. Unfortunately, her mind was of 
an eminently receptive nature, and readily absorbed 
the influence of the worst contemporary models in 
England. 

In the middle of the seventeenth century was pub- 
lished in London a small sixteenmo volume of a little 
over two hundred pages, bearing on its title-page these 
words : — 

"The Tenth Muse lately sprung up in America, or Several 
Poems, compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full 
of Delight, wherein especially is contained a complete dis- 
course and description of the four elements, ages of man, 
seasons of the year; together with an exact epitome of the 
four monarchies, viz : the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman ; 
also a dialogue between old England and New concerning the 
late troubles; with divers other pleasant and serious poems. 
By a gentlewoman in those parts. Printed for Stephen Bow- 
tell, at the sign of the Bible, in Pope's Head Alley, 1650." 

Such was the formidable title of the first book of 
original poems composed in New England. This 
woman's verses are almost as unreadable to-day as 
are the theological tracts of her contemporaries. The 
title sufficiently explains the pedantic character of the 
work. The poems are weak in conception and feeble 
in execution, in spite of their grandiloquent themes. 



32 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

One cannot help admiring the author's courage, how- 
ever, in launching a book of verse upon the world at 
a time when female poets were regarded somewhat 
askance. 

Most fulsome eulogies were pronounced upon her 
work. It was declared that if Virgil could hear her 
poems, he would cast his own into the flames. 
Nathaniel Ward, "The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam," 
wrote a sort of Puritan sonnet that was prefixed to her 
works. Another, in the admired style of the day, 
makes the far-fetched pun:^ — 

" Her breast was a brave palace, a broad street, 
Where all heroic ample thoughts did meet." 

In reference to her obligations to Du Bartas, the 
following anagram was inflicted on her name: — 

"Anna Bradstreate, — Deer neat An bartas, 
So Bartas-like thy fine spun poems been, 
That Bartas' name will prove an epicene." 

Still another could distort "Anna Bradstreate" into 
"Artes bred neat An," and John Rogers apostrophized 
her in a long poem. 

If her reputation were dependent upon her first pub- 
lication alone, Mrs. Bradstreet would not be entitled 
to a place in literature. In 1678, six years after her 
death, a new edition of her works was published in 
Boston bearing the title, "Several Poems compiled 
with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of 
Delight.'* 

This edition contained some of her less ambitious 
but far more creditable work. When she consented 
to be true to herself and to forget Du Bartas and her 
other models, she was capable of producing readable 



THE PURITAN MUSE 33 

poetry. Her poem " Contemplations " is certainly the 
best produced in New England up to that time. 

The "TentJi Muse" was a versatile one, approach- 
ing with equal indifference the subject of the rise and 
fall of monarchies, or the domestic affairs of her own 
household. She was blessed with eight children, as 
she informs us in a barnyard metaphor that is kept up 
for an indefinite number of lines. From this brood so 
infelicitously described were descended some of the 
most distinguished sons of New England, notably 
Dr. Holmes, Wendell Phillips, the Danas, and the 
Channings. 

To us of to-day the literary period of America in- 
cluded in the century following 1650 seems one of 
gloom and wretchedness. The literary debauchery 
that followed the restoration of the House of Stuart 
in England happily had no counterpart in this coun- 
try. If it had any effect at all it was in the nature of 
a reaction. A new generation had grown up under the 
sombre auspices of New England Calvinism, — a gen- 
eration that for the most part knew no other civiliza- 
tion than that of the colonies. Puritanism was now 
thoroughly established. Heterodoxy in old England 
was orthodoxy in the new. The gospel of glad tid- 
ings had become the gospel of vengeance. Everything 
was tinctured with the spirit of grimness, of retribu- 
tion, and even of horror. The God of loving-kindness 
was represented as a being, not of justice, but of 
hatred and rancor, delighting in the sufferings of err- 
ing humanity. The direct interposition of Providence 
was discovered in the most trivial affairs. The death 
of a good man, however aged, any political or social 
disorder, any suffering of mind, body, or estate, any- 
thing, in short, that was painful or disagreeable, was 

3 



34 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

attributed to divine wrath, rather than to the ordinary 
course of nature. This is manifest in the writings of 
the period, especially in such works as the " Wonder- 
working Providence of Zion's Savior in New Eng- 
land," published by Captain Edward Johnson of Woburn 
in 1654. In this narrative the interpositions of Provi- 
dence were resolutely insisted upon, even in most in- 
consequential details. Like his clerical brethren, this 
warrior-author persisted occasionally in indulging in 
verse. He wrote elegies, as was to be expected. But 
his chief effort was a prolonged wail through twenty- 
two stanzas of unmitigated grief at the degeneracy of 
the age. The tenor of the whole may be surmised 
from the opening stanzas: — 

" From silent night, true register of moans, 

From saddest soul consumed in deepest sins, 
From heart quite rent with sighs and heavy groans, 

My wailing muse her woful work begins, 
And to the world brings tunes of sad lament. 
Sounding naught else but sorrow's sad relent. 

" Sorry to see my sorrow's cause argumented, 

And yet less sorrowful were my sorrows more, 
Grief that with grief, is not with grief prevented, 

Yet grief it is must ease my grieved sore ; 
So grief and sorrow care but how to grieve, 
For grief and sorrow must my cares relieve." 

Intolerance reigned supreme. At the whims of pe- 
dantic ministers and bigoted judges innocent women 
were slain, sacrificed on the altar of superstition. The 
innocent laughter of childhood, the harmless sports of 
youth, all the mildest forms of social gayety or blithe- 
someness were scowled upon as unseemly and unbefit- 
ting the elect. To Satan was allowed a monopoly of 
all the good and cheerful things of earth. It was a 
period of artistic anarchy, an aesthetic reign of terror, 



THE PURITAN MUSE 35 

an apotheosis of the gloomy, the hateful, and the ter- 
rible. Anything wearing the sovereign robes of beauty 
was dethroned and morally guillotined. The animat- 
ing motive of morality seems to have been the dread 
of punishment, rather than devotion to the right. As 
late as the middle of the eighteenth century Jona- 
than Edwards echoed contemporary sentiment when 
he declared: — 

" God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise 
to keep the natural man out of hell one moment. The God 
that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider 
or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you and is 
dreadfully provoked ; his wrath toward you burns like fire ; he 
is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight ; you are 
ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hate- 
ful and venomous serpent is in ours." 

It is no wonder that the spirit of poetry was gagged 
and choked by the sulphurous fumes of such a system. 
The divine goddess of song gave place to a Puritan 
Cassandra, prophesying only misery and woe. From 
henceforth during the colonial period the muse that 
inspired Michael Wigglesworth was typical of all New 
England. 

While America cannot claim the honor of having 
given birth to this wonderful versifier, his training 
and affiliations were all intensely those of New Eng- 
land. He graduated at Harvard, where he taught as 
tutor, and was ordained pastor of the church at Wal- 
den, in 1667. He devoted his labors impartially to 
theology, medicine, and literature. In 1662 he pro- 
duced his magnum opus, "The Day of Doom, or a 
Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment." 

Wigglesworth was the avatar of Calvinism pushed to 
its logical extreme. He was a Congregational Thomas 



S6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of Celano, inspired by the bleak east winds of Massa- 
chusetts instead of by the semi-tropical airs of Italy. 
The solemn music of the Gregorian chant under his 
hand becomes an abominable jingle, not enlivened by 
a single note of cheerfulness or charity. Yet his ad- 
mirers could be found as late as revolutionary times. 
He was by all odds the most widely read of the colo- 
nial singers. The first edition of eighteen hundred 
copies of the " Day of Doom " was, even in the sparsely 
settled colony, exhausted in a little over a year. At 
least ten editions have been published in this coun- 
try, besides one in London and one in Newcastle-on- 
Tyne. It was reprinted in New York in 1867 by 
William Henry Barr, and a sketch of his life was 
published in Albany as late as 1871 by John Ward 
Dean. Besides the "Day of Doom," Wigglesworth is 
responsible for a less ambitious poem entitled " Meat 
out of the Eater, or Meditations concerning the Neces- 
sity, End and Usefulness of Afflictions unto God's 
Children," which was published in 1669. Some 
shorter poems were printed after his death. 

His "Vanity of Vanities " was appended to the sixth 
edition of the "Day of Doom" in 171 5, and well em- 
bodies his creed in the stanza : — 

" For what is Beauty but a faded flower ? 
Or what is Pleasure but the Devil's bait? 
Whereby he catch eth whom he would devour, 
And multitudes of souls doth ruinate ? " 

It must be admitted that at least in his writings he 
lived up to his principles, for beauty and pleasure alike 
are abjured in them. 

Wigglesworth' s masterpiece struck a responsive 
chord. Its spirit reflected that of the times, and 



IHE PURITAN MUSE 37 

this fact explains the hearty welcome from the New 
Englanders of that era, and justifies our reference to 
him as the poet laureate of later Puritanism. 

In Scripture language, paraphrased chiefly from St. 
Matthew and Revelation, the terrifying scenes of the 
judgment day on earth are realistically set forth. A 
separation " to sinners sad " is made betwee the good 
and bad, and the judgment proceeds. Heathen who 
have never had the benefit of revelation vainly appeal 
for mercy. They must suffer the consequences of 
their ignorance, however, and are doomed to an eter- 
nity of woe. Reprobate infants fare but little better. 
The sense of justice of these protesting babes is out- 
raged by seeing Adam, the source of all their woe, 
seated amongst the elect. But it is all of no use. 
According to Calvinistic tenets these infants, who 
never had a chance to repent of sins uncommitted, 
cannot expect the indulgence granted to converted 
sinners, for the Judge declares : — 

" You sinners are, and such a share 

As sinners may expect, 
Such you shall have, for I do save 

None but my own elect. 
Yet to compare your sin with their 

Who liv'd a longer time, 
I do confess yours is much less, 

Though every sin 's a crime. 

" A crime it is, therefore in bliss 
You may not hope to dwell. 
But unto you I shall allow 
The easiest room in hell." 

After this remarkable adjudication the Judge dis- 
poses of all the remaining sinners in a manner highly 
satisfactory, at least to the elect. 



38 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

" One natural brother beholds another 
In his astonished fit, 
Yet sorrows not thereat a jot 
Nor pities him a whit." 

With equal indifference "the godly wife" beholds 
her husband, and the husband beholds his wife, as the 
case may be, doomed to everlasting perdition ; so, too, 

" The tender mother will own no other 

Of all her numerous brood, 
But such as stand at Christ's right hand 

Acquitted through His blood. 
The pious father had now much rather 

His graceless son should ly 
In hell with devils, for all his evils, 

Burning eternally." 

Thereupon follows a description of the torments of 
the damned, in which the Wigglesworthian Muse 
fairly outdoes herself. Of all attempts ever made 
by presumptuous man to anticipate the judgments of 
Providence, these realistic descriptions are the most 
offensive. It is very delightful for the elect, how- 
ever, for we are informed, — 

" The saints behold with courage bold, 

And thankful wonderment 
To see all those that were their foes 

Thus sent to punishment. 
Then do they sing unto their King 

A song of endless praise : 
They praise His name, and do proclaim 

That just are all His ways." 

Perhaps an apology is due the reader for devoting so 
much attention to such a work, but it should be borne 
in mind that this was the representative poem of an 
era. It retained its hold upon people's hearts for more 
than a century, and cast its spirit of gloom over many 
a New England homestead. Its influence over the 



THE PURITAN MUSE 39 

hearts and minds of colonial Americans waned only 
with the waning of Puritanism itself. The genera- 
tions that admired it could never have appreciated the 
spirit of the modern New England poet : — 

" Yet in the maddening maze of things, 
And tossed by storm and flood, 
To one fixed trust my spirit clings, 
I know that God is good." 

Wigglesworth was as much the home poet of New 
England in parts of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries as was John G. Whittier in the nineteenth. 

In a literary era overshadowed by the spirit of Wig- 
glesworth, death and the tomb are naturally the most 
prolific topics. It is a wearisome journey among these 
graveyards of the past, and it is unnecessary to har- 
row the reader's literary sensibilities with an exhaus- 
tive survey. Conspicuous among them all in poetic 
merit is the lament of Urian Oakes on the death of 
Thomas Shepard. Its dignity of expression and stately 
rhythm, its sincerity and impassioned sorrow, appeal to 
the heart as few such productions can. It was pub- 
lished about 1677, and is the only extant poem of any 
length by its author. In spite of its occasional faults 
of diction, it rises so far above the level of contempo- 
rary verse as to deserve a prominent place in our early 
literature. It is the loftiest poetic strain that has 
been wafted down to us from the iron age of Puritan- 
ism. Its length precludes its reproduction in full, 
but a single stanza will serve as an illustration: — 

"Could I take highest flights of fancy, soar 

Aloft ; if wit's monopoly were mine ; 

All would be much too low, too light, too poor, 

To pay due tribute to this great divine. 

Ah ! wit avails not when th' heart 's like to break, 
Great griefs are tongue-tied, when the lesser speak." 



40 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Younger than Oakes by about two years was Benja- 
min Tompson, born at Braintree, Massachusetts, July 
14, 1642. So far as known he is the first native Amer- 
ican poet. He graduated at Harvard when twenty years 
old, and taught school for nearly half a century. On 
his tombstone at Roxbury he was described as "a 
learned schoolmaster and physician, and ye renowned 
poet of New England." According to the eternal fit- 
ness of things perhaps we should expect our first native 
singer to be a sufficiently typical American to relax 
his adherence to conventionalism, and show faith in 
the future and confidence in humanity. If we look 
for any such spirit in our first bard we shall be disap- 
pointed. The only respect, perhaps, in which he 
shows the " aggressive American spirit " is in the 
vastness, not the originality, of his theme. Hitherto 
his predecessors and contemporaries have limited them- 
selves to rhymed elegies on departed individuals. Mr. 
Tompson transcends them all in their chosen field by 
singing an elegy upon a whole generation. 

The source of our first bard's inspiration was not 
the future, but the past; not faith, but doubt; not 
life, but death. He can see nothing good in his own 
generation, and seems to believe that all the good and 
great of New England are under ground. He was an 
easy victim to the doleful spirit of the age. The work 
by which he is chiefly known, "New England's Crisis," 
was published about 1675. 

In full accord with the painful bards of Massachu- 
setts was Roger Wolcott, born in Windsor, Connecti- 
cut, in 1679. His career was typically American of the 
early days. With but little schooling he served his 
time as a mechanic, and in later years held many offices 
of trust and honor in the province. His book, entitled 



THE PURITAN MUSE 41 

"Poetical Meditations; Being the Improvement of 
Some Vacant Hours," was published in 1725. The 
crudeness of, these "meditations" bears evidence of 
their author's lack of culture, though they are not 
without a certain rugged force. 

In one of his meditations he repeats in various forms 
the question whether life is worth living, and almost 
concludes to meet "The King of Terrors, bravely 
undismayed." 

" And so might be my choice, but that I see 
Hell's flashes folding through eternity ; 
And hear damn'd company that there remain 
For very anguish gnaw their tongues in twain." 

But in spite of terrible threats Wolcott died peace- 
fully in his bed at the good old age of fourscore and 
ten, 

Jane Turell, the daughter of Benjamin Colman, 
and child wife of Ebenezer Turell, was one of the 
most interesting products of the Puritan era. Born 
in 1708, and dying in 1735,^ her childish achievements 
are remarkable not only for their promise, but as indi- 
cating the sort of culture enjoyed in scholarly New 
England homes, even in that early day. 

Her lines on "The Incomparable Mr. Waller," show 
that her studies had not been in vain so far as "easi- 

^ Her widowed husband was within the year married to Lucy Daven- 
port, who died May 17, 1759, and in the following year he married, thirdly, 
Jane, daughter of William Pepperill, then the widow of W^illiam Tyler. 
" By this marriage he became the brother-in-law of his former father-in- 
law. Dr. Colman, who had married Mary, another daughter of Pepperill, 
and who survived him to take a third husband. As Dr. Colman married 
three times, and his second wife was four times married, and his third 
wife three times, while Turell's third wife was also three times wedded, 
we can conceive that the survivor must have had a numerous circle of 
connections whose ramifications are a puzzle even to the professed gene- 
alogist." 



42 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

ness of expression," if not grammatical correctness, is 
concerned. 

Waller had been dead over twenty years before Jane 
Turell was born, but he still directed the style of 
colonial writers, and whatever else may be said of 
his method, its influence was potent in greatly im- 
proving current styles of versification. It is a great 
advance, in form at least, from the ragged verses of the 
Bay Psalm-Book by learned divines to the hymn writ- 
ten by Jane Turell in her eleventh year, wherein she 
sings: — 

" Happy are they that walk in wisdom's ways, 
That tread her paths and shine in all her rays." 

The influence of Waller was destined ere long to 
be eclipsed by that of a far more famous poet. As a 
general rule colonial singers were a generation behind 
their models, but there was one notable exception. 
The English poet who most affected his Puritan con- 
temporaries was a Roman Catholic by birth and edu- 
cation. While the Puritan bards were delivering 
themselves of their everlasting elegies, epigrams, and 
wretched literary conceits, there was growing up in 
England a lad crippled from birth, who in very infancy 
"lisped in numbers," and who for years was to be the 
supreme arbiter of the literary world. He was prob- 
ably not so widely read in New England during the 
first half of the eighteenth century as was the author 
of the "Day of Doom," but his influence on New Eng- 
land verse was immediate. 

In 1727, Mather Byles, of Boston, writing to the 
high priest of literature, remarks : — 

"Fame, after a man is dead, has been by some ingenious 
writers compared to an applause in some distant region. If 



THE PURITAN MUSE 43 

this be a just similitude, you may take pleasure of an admired 
name in America, and of spreading a transport over the face 
of a new world, by which you may in some measure, imagine 
the renown in which your name will flourish many ages to 
come, and anticipate a thousand years of futurity. 

" To let you see a little of the reputation which you bear in 
these unknown climates, and the improvements we are making 
under your auspicious influence, in the polite studies of the 
Muses, I transmit to you the enclosed Poems : Assuring my- 
self though not of the appreciation of your judgment, yet of 
the excuse and lenity of that candor which is forever in- 
separable from a great genius. But notwithstanding all the 
representations of your goodness, which my imagination is 
able to form, I find it is very difficult to suppress the struggle 
of passions which swell my breast, while I am writing a letter 
to so great a man. How often have I been soothed and 
charmed with the ever blooming landscapes of your Windsor 
Forest? And how does my very soul melt away, at the soft 
complaint of the laughing Eloisa. How very frequently has 
the Rape of the Lock commanded the various passions of my 
mind ; provoked laughter, breathed a tranquillity, or inspired a 
transport ; and how often have I been raised and borne away 
by the resistless fire of the Iliad as it glows in your immortal 
translation." 

This combination of gush and truculency fairly rep- 
resents the attitude of the later colonial singers. The 
"auspicious influences" alluded to by Mr. Byles con- 
tinued for a century to inspire American verse-makers. 
American poetry, in echoing and re-echoing the tones 
of the artificial school, seemed to preserve the faults 
v^rithout the virtues of the great exemplar. Whatever 
might be the spirit, the garb for the most part was that 
of Pope. During the first half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury the New England singers hardly got beyond the 
elegiac stage, even while parading in the trappings of 



44 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

pseudo-classicism. Byles himself made many oi his 
metrical attempts in this direction, and wrote elegies 
on the death of Governor Belcher's wife, the death of 
the queen, and the death of the governor's brother- 
in-law. " The Comet " and " The Conflagration " were 
sung in improved rhymed pentameters. He was a 
versatile writer, but his forte was writing sermons, 
not songs. He was a reputed wit as well as rhymes- 
ter, and a number of his bonmots have been preserved 
in different works relating to that period. One of his 
popular hymns was the subject of a rather clever par- 
ody by Joseph Green, and the parody was reparodied 
by Mr. Byles; but the parody on the parody is remark- 
able chiefly for its coarseness. His most ambitious 
effort seems to have been "The Conflagration," show- 
ing that Wigglesworthism is still paramount, even in 
its Popean environment. In spite of the adulation 
of contemporaries, Mr. Byles' poetry must strike mod- 
ern taste as insufferably dull and insipid. 

With the name of Mather Byles is necessarily asso- 
ciated that of Joseph Green, already referred to. They 
were both born in Boston in the year 1708, and both 
wrote verse grave and gay. Green seems to have been 
the better humorist of the two; for obvious reasons it 
is difficult to say which was the greater poet. 

It is as a satirist that Mr. Green is now best remem- 
bered. His chief production (even satires in that day 
took the prevalent form of elegy) was " A Mournful 
Lamentation for the Sad and Deplorable Death of Mr. 
Old Tenor." So far as we are aware it is the first 
occasion in which the American muse has invaded the 
precincts of political economy. 

Byles and Green were companions in literature, 
each contributing to a volume of " Poems by Several 



THE PURITAN MUSE 45 

Hands" in 1744, and remained companions in disloy- 
alty to native land. Both deserted their country's 
cause in her ^hour of need and became stanch apolo- 
gists of the Tory cause. 

Associated with Byles and Green in the preparation 
of " Poems by Several Hands " was the gifted young 
clergyman, John Adams, who died at Cambridge in 
1740, in his thirty-sixth year. His poems were pub- 
lished separately after his death. His eulogist de- 
clares : " His own works are the best encomium that 
can be given him, and as long as learning and polite- 
ness shall prevail, his sermons shall be his monument, 
and his poetry his epitaph." Monument and epitaph 
alike have passed from the public mind, though learn- 
ing and politeness are doubtless as prevalent as they 
were a century and a half ago. Mr. Adams' poems 
have gone the way of all imitations, and are not worthy 
of resuscitation. His "Address to the Supreme Be- 
ing," paraphrase of Revelation, translations of Hor- 
ace, his lines descriptive of "The Contented Man," 
and of Love and Beauty, his address to Mr. Turell " on 
the Death of his Virtuous Consort," beginning — 

" The darts of death within her bosom deep 
Have urged the fatal wound and fixed the lasting sleep," 

— all betraying more or less the influence of the artifi- 
cial school, are only evidences of the old mistake of 
confounding a poetic taste with poetic talent. 

The gloomy era could not last forever. Other 
themes than death and the judgment day began to 
attract readers. A counter-irritant was found in the 
works of Nathaniel Ames, physician and astronomer, 
of Dedham, Massachusetts, who anticipated Benja- 
min Franklin in making the annual almanac a medium 



46 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of good literature. He made no special pretensions to 
poetic ability, but his efforts show more of the true 
spirit than do those of many of his more aspiring 
predecessors. Under his genial influence the spirit 
of gloom becomes one of good-natured banter. He 
prophesies, in mock heroics, the end of the world, 
when the moon will turn to blood and the stars will 
fall from their places. 

His almanac for 1758 has a noble prediction con- 
cerning America, concluding in these words: — 

" Shall not then those vast quarries that teem with mechanic 
stone, those for structure to be piled into great cities, and 
those for sculpture into statues to perpetuate the honor of 
renowned heroes ; even those who shall serve their country ? 
O ! Ye unborn inhabitants of America, should this page 
escape its destined conflagration at the year's end, and these 
alphabetical letters remain legible — when your eyes behold the 
sun after he has rolled the seasons round for two or three cen- 
turies more, you will know that in Anno Domini 1758 we 
dreamed of your times." 

This pleasant prophecy forms a fitting close to this 
chapter. The doleful era is passing away. Above the 
gloomy songs of death and doom comes this clear voice, 
like the spirit of dawn after a long and dreary night. 



CHAPTER III 

LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 

1688-1765 

OUTSIDE of New England the number of colonial 
singers was insignificant, and the results of their 
labors meagre. A greater variety of theme will be 
found to prevail, a more cheerful view of life and 
affairs, and a greater freedom from ecclesiasticism. 
The middle and southern colonial singers were less 
scholarly than their Puritan contemporaries, and paid 
less heed to models either in books or morals. The 
only province that could compare with Massachusetts 
in literary achievement was Pennsylvania. The writ- 
ers of that colony have received from posterity tardy 
recognition as compared with the Puritan singers, but 
perhaps that is not the fault of posterity. 

Pennsylvania had few points in common with Mas- 
sachusetts. It is true both were founded on a reli- 
gious system, but the civilization of the Quakers was' 
of a milder type, and with a broader humanitariafn 
spirit than that of the Pilgrims and Puritans. The 
early inhabitants of the province being from different 
nationalities, showed a more cosmopolitan spirit, a 
more nearly just appreciation of human rights, than 
appeared in the bleaker northeast. 

There were no learned divines among them to issue 
their ponderous volumes of sermons, to reel off ever- 
lasting elegies on the death of a professional brother, 
or to frighten the timid with lurid pictures of the day 



48 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of doom. For the most part they were a simple folk, 
worrying themselves but little about their neighbors' 
sins. 

Toward the close of the seventeenth century, how- 
ever, there was a "Pennsylvania Pilgrim" who sang 
his songs on the banks of the Delaware, and was him- 
self destined to be the subject of poetry nearly two 
hundred years later. 

Francis Daniel Pastorius was born in Sommerhau- 
sen, Germany, in 1651. He was educated in all the 
science of his age, was a learned linguist, with some 
pretensions as a jurist. While still a young man he 
was converted to the doctrines of the Friends, came to 
Pennsylvania in 1683, and in the same year founded 
Germantown, where he died in 1719. He it was who 
in 1688 drew up the first memorial against slavehold- 
ing. He included among his acquaintances many of 
the most learned men in the Old World and the New. 
The great bulk of his manuscript has been lost, though 
his eulogist refers to one huge folio manuscript of a 
thousand pages, with a hundred lines to the page. It 
was entitled "Hive Bee-stock, Melliotropheum Alu- 
car, or Rusca Apium." It is a medley of fact and 
fiction, prose and poetry, science and pedantry, writ- 
ten in seven languages. It is in allusion to this that 
his poet-biographer pleasantly writes : — 

" At evening while his wife put on her look 
Of love's endurance, from its niche he took 
The written pages of his ponderous book. 

" And read in half the languages of man 
His ' Rusca Apium,' which the bees began 
And through the gamut of creation ran." 

Posterity could never emulate the faithful wife in 
her "look of love's endurance" regarding this mass of 



LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 49 

material. The works of the linguist, jurist, and mys- 
tic of the wilderness are all forgotten, save his Latin 
"Ode to Posterity," prefixed to the Germantown rec- 
ords in 1688, and made familiar through Whittier's 
translation. 

The influence of the early Quaker poets upon our 
literature is unimportant. The dominating influence 
of the Friends had greatly weakened before the eigh- 
teenth century had passed its first quarter. They con- 
tinued to control legislation, however, and in later 
years, by refusing to appropriate funds for war with the 
Indians, greatly embarrassed the white settlers. Be- 
sides being inclined to be friendly with the Indians, 
the Quakers carried their anti-war principles to an 
extreme. Factional feeling ran high. The local lit- 
erature of the period reflects the bitterness of each 
side. A partisan of the Paxton, or anti-Quaker, faction 
gave vent to his feelings in some taunting verses en- 
titled "The Cloven Foot Discovered." The Quaker 
side found expression in "The Paxtoniade," a drivel- 
ling imitation of "Hudibras. " 

Most of the Pennsylvania singers whose names are 
remembered owe their survival to the casual refer- 
ences in Franklin's Autobiography, rather than to 
anything that they themselves wrote. The earliest of 
these, though he was never seen by Franklin, was 
Aquila Rose, described as an " ingenious young man 
of excellent character, much respected in the town, 
clerk of the assembly, and a pretty poet." When 
Franklin met Keimer in Philadelphia, the latter was 
composing an elegy on Rose; "Keimer made verses, 
too," says Franklin, "but very indifferently. He could 
not be said to write them, for his manner was to com- 
pose directly out of his head." 



50 , HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Aquila Rose was born in England about 1695, came 
to America while still young, and died in Philadelphia 
when but twenty-eight years old. He had been dead 
seventeen years when a pamphlet of fifty-six pages was 
published at Philadelphia entitled " Poems on Several 
Occasions by Aquila Rose; to which are prefixed some 
other pieces writ to him, and to his memory after his 
decease." However exalted may have been Rose's 
personal character, which contemporary tributes place 
beyond question, his verse rarely rises above common- 
place. The "Elegy on Rose" which Franklin found 
Keimer composing is one of the curiosities of our 
literature, illustrating how close seriously intended 
panegyric may come to the burlesque and even the 
idiotic. 

In his Autobiography Dr. Franklin mentions the 
names of several Philadelphians who were members 
of his club called "The Junto." Among these was 
George Webb, an Oxford scholar, who ran away from 
home and came to Philadelphia. He was the author 
of a "poem" called "Bachelors' Hall," for which a 
short rhyming preface was written by Joseph Breint- 
nall, another member of "The Junto." Still another 
member was Nicholas Scull, a young surveyor, who 
also persisted in writing verse. He wrote " Kawanio 
Che Keeteru ; A True Relation of a Bloody Battle 
fought between George and Lewis." Though why it 
was ever published is not obvious. Franklin himself 
wrote verses fully as bad as those of his associates. 
In his best known poem he refers to poets as the waste 
paper of mankind, a judgment fully justified if based 
on the poetical achievements of "The Junto." 

But of all the companions of Franklin, the one who 
gained the greatest literary notoriety, if not fame, was 



LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 51 

James Ralph, who was born in Philadelphia about 
1695. When Franklin made his first visit to Eng- 
land in 1724, Ralph accompanied him, abandoning his 
family to their fate in Philadelphia. Before leaving 
America, Ralph had made up his mind to be a poet. 
"I did all I could to dissuade him from it," says 
Franklin, "but he continued scribbling verses till 
Pope cured him." Ralph had written something 
called "Night." The cure administered by Pope was 
in the third book of "The Dunciad:" — 

" Silence, ye wolves ! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, 
And makes Night hideous — Answer him, ye owls ! " 

The healing effects of this couplet were apparently 
in no degree lessened by the following explanatory 
note by Mr. Pope: — 

"James Ralph, a name inserted after the first editions, not 
known till he writ a swearing piece called ' Sawney ' very abusive 
of Dr. Swift, Mr. Gay and myself. These lines allude to a thing 
of his called ' Night,' a poem. This low writer attended his 
own works with panegyrics in the journals, and one in particu- 
lar praised himself highly above Mr. Addison, in wretched re- 
marks upon that author's account of English poets, printed in 
a London journal, September 1728. He was wholly illiterate 
and knew no language, not even French. Being advised to 
read the rules of dramatic poetry before he began a play, 
he smiled and replied, ' Shakespeare writ without rules.' He 
ended at last in the common sink of all such writers, a politi- 
cal newspaper, to which he was recommended by his friend 
Arnal, and received a small pittance for pay; and being 
detected in writing on both sides on one and the same 
day, he publicly justified the morality of his conduct." 

Ralph was a prolific writer. In 1728 he published 
"The Muses' Address to the King," "The Tempest," 



52 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and a volume of essays entitled "The Touchstone; " in 
1729, "Clarinda," a poem, and the epic by which he 
is still remembered in this country, " Zeuma, or The 
Love of Liberty." Of one of his political pamphlets, 
" The Groans of Germany, " over fifteen thousand copies 
were sold at once. His " History of England " was 
praised by Charles James Fox, and his prose works 
generally evince more ability than his poems. 

" Zeuma " has been more fortunate than most of its 
author's poems, and has enjoyed a sort of fragmentary 
immortality in extracts published in several antholo- 
gies of American literature. It is a tale of the con- 
quest of Peru, and aims to give a description of the 
idyllic character of the ancient Peruvians, not entirely 
justified by what is known of that ill-fated people. 
Ralph was also author of several dramas which an in- 
appreciative posterity has allowed to slumber. As he 
abjured his Americanism when he deserted his family 
and native land, America can lay no claims to these 
dramatic productions, composed in England, and hav- 
ing nothing American in their theme or treatment. 

Far above the dreary level of mediocrity of most of 
the Pennsylvania versifiers was the genius of Thomas 
Godfrey. This young singer, born in Philadelphia in 
1736, apprenticed to an uncongenial trade, and en- 
dowed with limited culture, early gave evidence of 
strong poetic tastes. He died suddenly when only 
twenty-six years old, and it was not until after his 
death that his works were published in book form. 
His poems naturally betray the faults of juvenility, 
but are written in a higher key and truer rhythm 
than the average American verse of the time. In his 
twenty-second year he produced his most memorable 
work, "The Prince of Parthia, " a tragedy. It enjoys 



LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 53 

the distinction of being the first poetic drama written 
in America, It is not necessary to be severely criti- 
cal of a dramatic effort of a young man who has barely 
attained his majority. In the most difficult species of 
composition it is sufficient to say this young poet 
displays strength and ability in spite of a tendency to 
the penny dreadful. Shakespeare seems to have been 
the young poet's model in his tragedy, and Chaucer in 
his other long poem, "The Court of Fancy." God- 
frey's efforts are marked by a refined taste and correct 
style, rather than by any evidence of inventive genius. 
It is idle to speculate upon what he might have done 
if he had attained the maturity of his powers. As it 
is, he remains a conspicuous figure among the colonial 
verse writers. Brilliant as was the promise, the actual 
performance hardly raises him above the crowded ranks 
of those whom early death has enrolled among the 
world's great possibilities. 

Nathaniel Evans, editor of Godfrey's posthumous 
volume, was another singer cut off in early manhood. 
He was born in Philadelphia in 1742, visited England 
in 1765, and returning to America, died in 1767. His 
poems were collected and published after his death. 
They indicate a clever knack at rhymes, without ex- 
hibiting any great degree of poetic merit. His "Ode 
on the Prospect of Peace, 1761," has been overpraised. 
It is like countless other performances upon similar 
themes, though there are some creditable lines pro- 
phetic of the " immortal lays " to be inspired by the 
dawn of peace in his native province. The most in- 
teresting of all his poems is his tribute "To Benjamin 
Franklin, Esq., LL. D. " It is probably the only in- 
stance of our colonial muse appropriately singing the 
praises of physical science. As a feeble premonition 



54 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of the "poetry of the future," in relation to science, 
the following lines deserve attention : — 

" What wonder struck us when we did survey 
The lambent lightnings innocently play, 
And down thy rods beheld the dreaded fire 
In a swift flame descend, — and then expire; 
While the red thunders, roaring loud around, 
Burst the thick clouds, and harmless smite the ground ! 
Blest use of art ! applied to serve mankind, 
The noble province of the sapient mind ! 
For this the soul's best faculties were given, 
To trace great nature's laws from earth to heaven." 

The Indian wars of this period inspired one remark- 
able work deserving at least a cursory notice. 

Major Robert Rogers was a native of New Hamp- 
shire, well known throughout the colonies as a bold 
Indian fighter, and possessing some literary ability. 
He was author of an American tragedy published in 
London in 1765, the year after Godfrey's drama was 
printed. This production, " Ponteach, or the Savages 
of America," has received little attention in this coun- 
try.^ Judging from the copious extracts by Parkman 
and Duyckinck, the work is below Godfrey's tragedy 
/ in literary or poetic ability. It possesses a local flavor 
/ in its depiction of Indian affairs, though there seems 
' to be no basis in history for the remarkable plot. 
The drama opens with a dialogue between two Indian 
traders, who concoct a scheme for swindling the sav- 
ages in bartering for peltries. The chief interest cen- 
tres in the machinations of the jealous Philip, son of 
Pontiac, to prevent his own brother Chekitan from 
securing the hand of Monelia, daughter of Hendrik, 

1 " It is very rare, and beside the copy in my possession, I know of 
but one other, which may be found in the library of the British Museum." 
Parkman's Pontiac, I. 164. 



LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 55 

Emperor of the Mohawks. In the last act Monelia is 
killed; Philip's treachery to his brother is discovered. 
The brothers fight, Philip is slain, and Chekitan kills 
himself. Ponteach, after the death of his two sons, 
and the defeat of his followers by the English, with- 
draws to the western forest. 

As Godfrey's work retains an interest from the fact 
of its being the first tragedy composed in America, so 
Rogers' effort must be recognized as the first poetic 
drama by a native American dealing with American 
themes. 

Colonial New York contributed little to the devel- 
opment of higher literature. New Netherland under 
the Dutch hardly offered a congenial soil for such a 
pursuit. It would be unjust, however, to ignore the 
claims of three Dutch singers to recognition on the 
ground of priority, if not of poetic merit. Jacob 
Steendham, the first writer of verse in New Amster- 
dam, was born in Holland in 1616. The time and 
place of his death are unknown. In 1649 and 1650 he 
had published at Amsterdam his poetical volume, 
"Den Distelvink. " It was probably not long after 
the last date that he arrived in New Netherland, for 
we find him purchasing a lot at Flatlands in 1652. 
Three of his poems relating to New Amsterdam have 
been preserved and translated by Henry C. Murphy. 
In 1659, Steendham published his poem of about two 
hundred lines entitled "Klagt van Niew Amsterdam," 
— "The Complaint of New Amsterdam." The little 
Dutch settlement is represented as the daughter of 
old Amsterdam, with the god of war for her father. 
Abandoned by her mother, the infant is left to the 
care of sponsors, the West India Company, and be- 
comes the prey of the British, who are symbolized in 



56 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the form of swine. In spite of adversities, the found- 
ling prospers, the neglect of friends being more than 
compensated by the gifts of nature. The poem ends 
with an appeal to the mother for protection, and men 
to till the land. The " Klagt " was followed two years 
later by a much longer poem, " 'T Lof van Niew Neder- 
land." This and " Prickel Vaersen " (1662) are more 
elaborate than the "Complaint," being metrical de- 
scriptions of the attractions offered by the New World. 
A more important person than Steendham, so far 
as influence on American history is concerned, was 
Dominie Henricus Selyns (1636-1701), who was de- 
scended from a long line of ministers in Holland, and 
worthily sustained the name and fame of his ancestry. 
In 1660 he was appointed to the ministry of the church 
at "Breukelen" in New Netherland. He is still re- 
membered as the only minister stationed at Brooklyn 
before the Revolution. According to stipulation he 
remained at that place only four years, returning to 
Holland in 1664. In 1682 he accepted a call to the 
First Reformed Dutch Church of New York, in which 
place he passed the rest of his life, an honored pastor, 
and a public-spirited, liberal-minded citizen. He took 
an active interest in the exciting questions of the day, 
and, though not always politic in the expression of his 
opinions, was esteemed by all for his sincerity. His 
tolerance of opinion is shown in his kindly expressions 
concerning William Penn and Cotton Mather. He 
left some verses which remained in manuscript for 
nearly two centuries. They are of the kind generally 
styled "occasional," and are chiefly tributes to the 
merits or memories of personal friends. Those trans- 
lated by Mr. Murphy are especially valuable for their 
references to contemporary events. The "Bruydloft 



LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 57 

Toorts" contains the only contemporary reference in 
New Netherland to the great earthquake and meteoric 
phenomena that disturbed the continent from Canada 
to Mexico. The poet also commemorates Dominie 
Nicholas Rensalaer, the "prophet" of Albany, who, 
among other predictions, foretold the restoration of 
Charles II. Dominie Megapolensis, Governor Stuy- 
vesant, and other contemporary worthies are also the 
subjects of his verse. It is these allusions to men and 
events that make the good Dominie's poetic experi- 
ments of historic importance. 

The third of this little group was Nicasius de Sille, 
who was born in Holland near the beginning of the 
seventeenth century. He is said to have been an 
accomplished lawyer and man of affairs. He came to 
New Netherland in 1653, as first councillor to the 
colonial government, and was subsequently attorney- 
general and sheriff of New Amsterdam. He was one 
of the proprietors of New Utrecht on Long Island, 
and kept the records of that town. It is in those 
records that his few metrical efforts have been pre- 
served. The best that can be said of them is that they 
bear favorable comparison with the mass of amateur 
verse of that period. ^ 

The works of few poetical writers in the English 
language in New York survived the Revolution. There 
was one rhymester, however, who, while Byles and 
other New England writers were swelling the chorus 
of the disciples of Mr. Pope, was contributing his 
efforts in a similar strain. 

William Livingston was born in Albany in 1723, 
graduated at the head of his class at Yale in 1741, 

1 See "Anthology of New Netherland," by Henry C. Murphy. 
Bradford Club Series, No. 4. N. Y., 1865. 



58 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and was admitted to the bar seven years later. In 
his youth he published "The Art of Pleasing," "a 
juvenile performance, written in imitation of Horace's 
Epistle ' ad Pisones, ' " ^ which seems to have been des- 
tined to early oblivion, as it is now utterly unknown. 

The poem to which he owes his reputation as a verse 
writer was published in 1747, when its author was but 
twenty-four years old. It was entitled " Philosophic 
Solitude, or the Choice of Rural Life : A Poem by a 
gentleman educated at Yale College. Me placeant 
omnia sylvae. Virg. Otium sine Uteris mors est, et 
vivi homininis sepultura. Sen." It consists of about 
seven hundred lines of heroic verse, was republished 
at Boston in 1762, and has been several times re- 
printed since the Revolution. 

Mr. Livingston all his life was as bitter an opponent 
of the Thirty-nine Articles as was any Puritan divine, 
but his muse was of a gentler type than her New Eng- 
land sister. Othet sources of inspiration were found 
than Calvinistic theology, or adulatory elegies and 
eulogies. In easy flowing verse the young poet sang 
the delights of solitude, rural life, and domestic affairs. 
His verse is in the conventional style and soon be- 
comes wearisome, but is interesting as showing the 
youthful tastes of one destined to become an heroic 
figure in an heroic age. The lines on the ideal wife^ 
have been frequently quoted in our literary antholo- 
gies. It is imaginable that the world at large may 
not feel an overweening interest in the impossible 
being conjured up by Livingston the poet. But it is 
a matter of history that in his domestic affairs Living- 

1 Memoir of the Life of William Livingston, by Theodore Sedgwick, 
Jun. N. Y., 1833, p. 61. 

2 ' The Wife " ^Philosophic Solitude, 1747]. 



LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 59 

ston the man was most fortunate. His political career 
precluded the realization of his early dreams of Arca- 
dian happiness^ at least so far as related to the study 
of the delectable Watts, while arrayed in ram's skin 
for clothing. It is as the revolutionary hero of New 
Jersey, the gentle scholar and stalwart patriot, the 
idol of friends and terror of foes, the honored citizen 
and soldier, the friend and adviser of Washington, 
the early champion of emancipation and the liberator 
of his own slaves, that William Livingston deserves a 
conspicuous place in our political history. In view of 
his public achievements, posterity can afford to deal 
gently with his youthful literary experiments. 



CHAPTER IV 

HINTS OF NATIONALISM 

1725-1776 

AMONG nearly all nations the ballad in some form 
has embodied the earliest attempts at a litera- 
ture. As the songs of the people, rather than of the 
cultured classes, the ballads form the best reflex of 
current sentiment and feeling. Percy's "Reliques" 
and Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" afford 
the groundwork for some of the most brilliant pages of 
romance. 

The conditions existing in the American colonies 
offered excellent background for this species of litera- 
ture. The obstacles with which the settlers had to 
contend ; the dangers everywhere lurking about them ; 
the superstitions and traditions of the race that was 
fading before them ; the episodes arising out of the 
witchcraft delusion ; the spirit of liberty breathed by 
every utterance of nature; the gigantic struggle be- 
tween European forces echoed in the American wil- 
derness, — these and many other striking incidents 
afforded abundant opportunity for the inspiration of 
folk-songs and martial poetry. That there were homely 
songs and ballads inspired by local events, sung at 
every hearthstone and around every camp-fire, keeping 
alive the spirit of martial courage and patriotism, 
there is now no doubt. The bulk of these perished 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 6i 

with the occasions that inspired them. Even the " in- 
fectious frenzy of psalm-singing " among the Puritans 
did not altogether blight the impulses of loyalty. 
Nothing better illustrates the temper of the colonists 
than the spirit of song, not always the most tuneful, 
perhaps, but breathing the sentiment of loyalty, even 
amid wrongs and injustice, as long as that loyalty 
meant something more than the sacrifice of honor and 
freedom. 

In that class of literature, which occupies in our 
early history a position somewhat analogous to that of 
the ballad in other nations, we shall find nothing ap- 
proaching "the picturesque energy and simple pathos" 
of the early Scotch and English ballads, like " Chevy 
Chase," "The Nut Brown Maid," "Sir Patrick Spens," 
or "The Gaberlunzie Man." Instead we shall have to 
content ourselves with such crude effusions as " Love- 
well's Fight," tributes to General Wolfe, laments for 
ill-fated Braddock, and the anti-Gallic utterances of 
Tilden, Maylem, Prime, and others. These are re- 
ferred to not because of any poetic merits whatever, 
but as indicating the growth of popular sentiment as 
it found expression in the songs of the people. 

The region about Lovewell's, or Lovell's Pond, 
near Fryeburg, Maine, has some pretensions as classic 
ground for the student of American literature. Near 
it, in 1725, was fought a bloody skirmish between 
colonists and Indians, resulting in the loss of Cap- 
tain Lovewell and a number of his followers, all sub- 
stantial men in the settlements. A brilliant victory 
was achieved though the Indians greatly excelled in 
numbers. It was this "battle" that inspired the ear- 
liest military ballad composed in America now extant. 
It was written shortly after the fight itself, though its 



62 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

authorship is unknown. It is said to have been ex- 
ceedingly popular in its day, and in recent times has 
been reprinted probably more than any other poem 
written before the Revolution. It must be admitted 
that in its lines the Christians do not always display 
the most exalted standard of civilized warfare. The 
opening stanzas describe the efforts of the company to 
capture a solitary Indian. Having successfully sur- 
rounded this one hostile savage, — 

" They came unto this Indian, who did them thus defy, 
As soon as they came nigh him two guns he did let fly, 
Which wounded Captain Lovewell, and likewise one man more, 
But when this rogue was running, they laid him in his gore. 

" Then having scalp'd the Indian, they went back to the spot," etc. 

A good description, in the main historically correct, 
is given of the fight that ensued, the balladist inform- 
ing us: — 

" Our worthy Captain Lovewell among them then did die, 
They kill'd Lieutenant Robins, and wounded good young Frye, 
Who was our English chaplain ; he many Indians slew, 
And some of them he scalped when bullets round him flew." 

Those were rude times, and it was not considered 
inconsistent with clerical dignity for ministers of the 
gospel to give practical aid in exterminating the 
heathen. Thomas Symmes published an account of 
the affair as detailed by the survivors on their way 
home. The " Chaplain Frye" alluded to is described 
as a young gentleman of liberal education, who had 
taken his degree at Harvard two years before, and 
was greatly beloved for his excellent performances 
and good behavior. He fought with undaunted cour- 
age until mortally wounded. " But when he could 
fight no longer, he prayed audibly several times for 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 63 

the preservation and success of the residue of the 
company." ^ 

The tragic death of this young chaplain was the sub- 
ject of another ballad, which seems to have perished 
utterly. At any rate, I can find no other trace of it 
than the mention made by Dr. S. L. Knapp, who ap- 
pears to have been in possession of the manuscript as 
late as 1829, In referring to this elegy Dr. Knapp 
writes : — 

" If it does not burn with a Sapphic blaze, it gives more of 
the light of history than all the odes of the Lesbian dame on 
her lost Phaon. Miss Susannah Rogers calls on the Muse to 
assist her in describing the youthful warrior, who was resting 
without his shroud on the field of glory. . . . His valor, his 
piety, his prayers amidst the fight, his wounds all bleeding, 
pass in review before her streaming eyes, and she sees the 
howling wilderness where he fell. She notes the fortitude 
and resignation with which he died, or rather his exhibition 
of it when they left him to die, for he was not dead when his 
companions were under the necessity of leaving him to perish. 
The parental grief is not forgotten, and her own loss is touched 
upon with truth and delicacy." 

The fight near Lovewell's Pond has still another 
claim on the ground of literary priority. Nearly a 
hundred years after its occurrence it was the subject 
of a third ballad. On November 17, 1820, the Port- 
land "Gazette" printed the first poetical venture 
of a lad of thirteen years. It bore the title of "The 
Battle of Lovell's Pond." Its author never included 
it among his published works, and it is only since his 
death that it has become familiar to the present gener- 
ation. The smooth versification of this boyish effort 

1 " Lovewell Lamented ; or a sermon occasioned by the fall of the 
brave Captain John Lovevvell." By Rev. Thomas Symmes. 1725. 



64 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

is suggestive as a foreshadowing of the artistic spirit 
that was in later years to become renowned in the 
works of Henry W. Longfellovv^. 

Naturally the anti-Gallic spirit was very strong in 
the colonies during the middle years of the eighteenth 
century, and found expression in popular verse. It is 
not surprising, therefore, that the doggerel of the 
rhymesters of that day should have inspired genuine 
enthusiasm. War verse is apt to be poor literature. 
It is only by placing one's self fully in accord with those 
times that the real spirit of such local and transitory 
effusions can be appreciated. To us of to-day the 
great mass of our ballad literature of the eighteenth 
century is drivel, yet those efforts conveyed thoughts 
and sentiments in words that burned, though the fire 
has long since gone from them. 

One of the earliest books of war poetry published in 
this country was Tilden's "Miscellaneous Poems on 
Divers Occasions, Chiefly to Animate and Rouse the 
Soldiers," printed in 1756. The author is generally 
alluded to by his surname only, it being taken for 
granted that his Christian name had been forgotten, 
but there seems to be no reasonable doubt as to his 
identity with the Stephen Tilden of that time. By 
way of preface the author, then seventy years old, 
offers a candid apology for the little book, which cer- 
tainly cannot be commended for its literary merits. 
The first effort is called "The British Lion Roused." 

"Hail, great Apollo, guide my feeble pen. 
To rouse the august lion from his den. 
Exciting vengeance on the worst of men. 

" Rouse, British Lion, from thy soft repose, 
And take revenge upon the worst of foes, 
Who try to wring and haul you by the nose." 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 65 

After such an invocation the reader should be pre- 
pared for almost anything, even to bear with equanim- 
ity the objurgation, — 

" Cease, liquid mountains of the foaming flood, 
And tinge the billows with the Gallic blood, 
A faithful drubbing to their future good. 

" Bury their squadrons ill in watery tombs, 
And when the news unto Versailles it comes 
Let Lewis swear by Gar and gnaw his thumbs." 

In similar strains he sings of "Braddock's Defeat," 
"The English Soldiers Encouraged," and "The Sol- 
diers Reproved for Reflecting upon One Another." 

In strong contrast with the modesty and crude sim- 
plicity of Tilden are the bellicose vaporings of John 
Maylem. The latter seems to have aspired to be rec- 
ognized as above all things the battle bard of the anti- 
Gallic soldiery. He wrote under the nom de guerre of 
"Philo-Bellum," and inflicted upon his countrymen, in 
1758, something called "The Conquest of Louisbourg, 
a Poem," and in the same year something else called 
"Gallic Perfidy, a Poem." In the former of these the 
following extraordinary incident is related as occur- 
ring at the siege of Louisbourg: — 

" When Amherst there, like Peleus' mighty son, 
Dreadful in arms and Tyrian purple shone, 
Engaging here in martial order stood 
Fierce as Alcides or the Scythian God, 
Till thundering Mars no more the sight could bear, 
Turn'd pale with envy, and let drop his spear, 
And flame all flaming, from the imperial car, 
Hail'd him sole rival of the God of war." 

Maylem is said to have been somewhat addicted to 
the "flowing bowl." His rantings certainly have the 
effect of having been inspired by some other liquid 

5 



66 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

than that from the fountain of Hippocrene. One of the 
post-Revolutionary poets has given us the couplet : — 

" Such warmth of fancy once a Maylem fired 
Untaught he sang, by all the muse inspired," 

— a rather equivocal compliment to Harvard College, 
from which Maylem graduated in 171 5. This writer 
adds, by way of explanation; — 

"John Maylem was a poet of genius, who lived not many 
years since. His productions bear every mark of a deficient 
education; but his genius rose superior to every inconven- 
ience, and he remains a shining example of the Horatian 
maxim, ' poeta nascitiir non fif " 

George Cockings, of New Hampshire, was another 
battle bard of the period, whose nam,e has survived his 
works. He was both an epic and a dramatic writer. 
He seems to have achieved a certain sort of success, 
for his poem on the war in Newfoundland, written in 
1758, appears to have passed through several editions. 
At least the fourth edition was published in London in 
or before 1766. 

Probably the best-known writer of war verse of this 
period is Dr. Benjamin Young Prime, the ancestor of 
a line of distinguished scholars and authors who have 
rendered honorable service to our literature. Dr. 
Prime was born at Huntington, Long Island, Decem- 
ber 20, 1733, and died there in October, 1791. He 
came of pure New England stock that had been Ameri- 
can for three generations. After graduating at Prince- 
ton in 175 1, he began the study of medicine. Foreign 
travel and study, including a course at the University 
of Leyden, combined to render him one of the most 
cultured Americans of his time. He was a distin- 
guished linguist, writing fluently in several languages, 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 67 

ancient and modern. His best-known productions 
were written in the spirit of the Revolutionary era; 
but for the present he is entitled to mention as the 
author of "The Patriot Muse, or Poems on some of 
the Principal Events of the Late War, together with 
a Poem on the Peace, Vincit amor patrics; by an 
American Gentleman." This was published in Lon- 
don in 1764, and contains a number of pieces inspired 
by the colonial wars. His tribute to Wolfe, which 
has been frequently reprinted, has some lines which 
show the practised hand of a scholar. 

With the exception of Dr. Prime's poems, the best 
war pieces were fugitive stanzas published anony- 
mously in the journals of the day. Of these, the best- 
known are the " Song of Braddock's Men," — 
" To arms ! to arms ! my jolly grenadiers ! " 
and the lines on the death of Wolfe, beginning: — 

" Thy merits, Wolfe, transcend all human praise, 
The breathing marble or the muses' lays." 

Many of the songs and ballads of the French and 
English war, like "The Tenth Regiment's March to 
Quebec," and Edward Botwood's "Hot Stuff," con- 
tinued favorites with the English soldiers, and in later 
years were appropriated by the Tory side, the anti- 
Gallic feeling being transferred to hostility against 
the rebellious Continentals. 

At the accession of George HL (1761) colonial loy- 
alty expended itself in a series of literary pyrotechnics, 
the brilliancy of which was as brief as it was bewilder- 
ing. The death of one George and the accession of 
another furnished the faculty and alumni of Harvard 
the inspiration to express colonial sentiment in most 
approved classic style. To commemorate an event of 



68 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

such importance to the English people, the resources 
of the English language were evidently insufficient. 
The Greek and Latin tongues were invoked, and odes 
in which pedantry vied with sycophancy were addressed 
in honor of the living and the dead. These combined 
efforts were sumptuously bound in a quarto volume 
entitled ^^ Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis 
apud Novanglos." The work has ever since been re- 
garded as the acme of colonial scholarship. It was 
duly forwarded to His Majesty, who appears to have 
treated it in much the same spirit as he displayed 
toward later and more important communications from 
his American subjects. So much earnest labor and 
fervid adulation in three languages would seem to be 
deserving of something more than the silent contempt 
which the learned contributors received for their pains. 
The scholarship shown in the work is of higher order 
than the poetry. It is a conglomeration of fulsome 
flattery which appears grotesque enough, when viewed 
through the perspective of the years immediately fol- 
lowing. The deceased George is, of course, por- 
trayed as an impersonation of all the heroic virtues, 
compared with whom the Caesars and Alexanders of 
antiquity are unworthy to be named. 

In a.11 the thirty-one poems — three in Greek, twelve 
in English, and sixteen in Latin — there is hardly an 
original thought. The whole production betrays a 
spirit of obsequious insincerity in most conventional 
form. The only evidence that the young king ever 
read the book is the fact that not long after its appear- 
ance His Majesty began to show signs of insanity. 

The accession of George III. marked the turning 
point in our literary as well as political history. For 
the most part the verse of the next three decades is 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 69 

political, displaying through the different gradations 
of devoted loyalty, timid appeals, earnest protests, 
open revolution, and finally national independence, the 
transfer of allegiance from king to native land. 

Hitherto the spirit of American song has been but 
a feeble reflection of its prototype in the motherland. 
The most powerful minds in American literature dur- 
ing colonial times were for the most part occupied 
with theology; during the Revolution and the years 
immediately following, with war, politics, and states- 
manship. The writings in these departments of litera- 
ture will show more force and vigor, more strength of 
imagination, more true poetic inspiration, than many 
of the popular verses of the period. Yet in spite of 
the galling restraints of Puritan bigotry and arrogance, 
of Quaker primness and asceticism, of Southern preju- 
dice and feudalism, the spirit of song, though caged 
and fettered, could not be entirely suppressed. That 
it should have existed at all and found utterance, even 
though lacking in finer melodies, is only another evi- 
dence that, in spite of all logic, the heart is as potent 
as the intellect in influencing men's actions. 

The gradual transition of the American people from 
the condition of "free and loyal subjects" to that of 
free and independent citizens is plainly to be traced 
in our literature. Not the least potent in stirring the 
hearts and consciences of the people was the spirit of 
song. Poetry, as the first-born of the arts, gave her 
aid to the cause of liberty, and was often welcomed 
where logical arguments would have been wasted. 
During the decade immediately preceding 1776, the 
spirit of patriotic verse will be found to be that of 
loyalty, but loyalty subordinate to liberty. As in the 
written prose and spoken eloquence of the time, the 



70 



HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 



patriotic resentment is aroused by the denial of rights 
which the colonists claimed as free-born English 
subjects. 

When David Garrick composed his popular song 
"Hearts of Oak," he little dreamed of the effect it 
would have far across the sea. Yet it was by the tune 
of that song that thousands of our early patriots were 
inspired and thrilled into unison with the American 
cause. All over the colonies in city street and village 
meetings, in broadside sheets and newspaper columns, 
it became as familiar as are any of our national airs to 
us to-day. 

It was, as we have seen, in the colony of Virginia 
that the first literary work of importance in America 
was composed. Fifty years later, in the same colony, 
perished as our first martyr in the cause of popular 
rights, he who signed himself " General by consent of 
the people." Ninety years after Bacon's death, ten 
years before the Declaration of Independence was 
written, came from the same province the first poeti- 
cal tribute showing the awakening American spirit. 
The pride of the Old Dominion is in her warriors, 
statesmen, and orators, rather than in her writers of 
national fame. Yet it was the future " Mother of 
Presidents " and parent of imperial states that was 
first in the field with verse to inspire loyalty to native 
land. 

The composition referred to had, perhaps, little in- 
fluence on the development of our national literature, 
but as no force is ever entirely wasted, so this patri- 
otic ballad, to the air "Hearts of Oak," doubtless had 
its effect in stimulating the American spirit, and con- 
tributing to the cause of nationalism. It appeared in 
"The Virginia Gazette," May 2, 1766. 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 71 

A song to the same tune, and known as "The Pa- 
triot's Appeal," was printed in "The Pennsylvania 
Chronicle" at Philadelphia on the significant date of 
July 4, 1766. It was composed by John Dickinson, of 
Delaware, who wrote concerning it : — 

" I hope my good intentions will produce pardon with those 
I wish to please, for the boldness of my numbers. My worthy 
friend, Dr. Arthur Lee, a gentleman of distinguished family, 
abilities, and patriotism in Virginia, composed eight lines of it. 
Cardinal De Retz always enforced his political operations by 
songs. I wish our attempt may be useful." 

In one stanza will be noticed the origin of a senti- 
ment destined to become a national watchword: — 

" Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all, 
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall ; 
In so righteous a cause, we may hope to succeed, 
For Heaven approves every generous deed." 

This song became extremely popular, and was 
printed in widely scattered journals throughout the 
colonies. Within a few months "it appeared," says 
the historian, "as a ballad sheet set to the majestic 
air of ' Hearts of Oak, ' and was sung in the streets of 
Boston and the villages of New England by all the 
sons of freedom, who promised themselves that all ages 
would applaud their courage." 

Dickinson's song paid the penalty of its popularity 
in being parodied by the Tories. That this parody, 
weak as it was, had some effect, is evinced by the fact 
that it in turn was parodied in the now famous " Mas- 
sachusetts Liberty Song." This was probably the 
most widely circulated ballad of Revolutionary times. 
It even found its way across the ocean, and was printed 
in "The St. James Gazette," in November, 1768. So 



72 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

powerful was it in "moulding the popular mind in 
favor of union and resistance," that it is still fre- 
quently reprinted with the music as it originally ap- 
peared in a Boston newspaper. As an echo of an echo 
it has no claim to originality, but on account of its 
effect at the time is entitled to mention. In January, 
1769, New York followed in the wake of Virginia, 
Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, with a similar song 
in "The New York Journal." Up to and during the 
war, song writers on both sides continued to ring the 
changes on this now well-worn tune in verses of vary- 
ing degrees of merit. 

Nearly all the important episodes leading up to the 
Revolution were duly celebrated in the verse of the 
period. The Stamp Act inspired several effusions of 
which Dr. Prime's "Song for the Sons of Liberty in 
New York " is probably the best. 

The subject of tea naturally appears in numerous 
ballads. Of these a good specimen is the one origi- 
nally printed in "The Pennsylvania Packet" in 1773. 
It was entitled "A New Song to the Plaintive Tune 
of Hosier's Ghost," but is too long for insertion here. 
Another noteworthy ballad, for whose preservation we 
are indebted to Mr. Moore, is "Liberty's Call." It 
was written in 1775 by, John Mason, though it has been 
attributed to Jeremiah Sargent as well as to Francis 
Hopkinson. The spirit is notably American in the 
welcome it extends to the oppressed of other lands. 

It is not in the songs and ballads alone that the 
awakening spirit is discernible. In the more sus- 
tained efforts of scholarly verse-writers the same 
feeling is manifest. "The Prospective Greatness of 
America " was a favorite theme with young poets like 
Trumbull, Freneau, and Brackenridge. 



HINTS OF NATIONALISM 73 

It was in 1774, while Mr. Gulian Verplanck of New 
York was in England, that he wrote his celebrated 
"Prophecy." ^ 

" Hail happy Britain, Freedom blest retreat, 
Great is thy power, thy wealth, thy glory great, 
But wealth and power have no immortal day 
For all things ripen only to decay. 
And when that time arrives, the lot of all. 
When Britain's glory, power and wealth shall fall ; 
Then shall thy sons by Fate's unchanged decree 
In other worlds another Britain see. 
And what thou art, America shall be." 

As the breach with the mother country continued to 
widen, the spirit ' of our poetic verse naturally in- 
creased in bitterness. The respect for the king rapidly 
changed to quite a different feeling as the Revolution 
culminated toward independence. Contemporary verse 
inspired by the Declaration was in no wise remarkable. 
The strains of "high-born rebel melody" that appeared 
in the "Freeman's Journal" shortly before the Dec- 
laration was signed, are smooth and rhythmical, but 
Jonathan M. Sewall's lines on the subject are alto- 
gether unworthy of the author. 

With the formal separation from the mother coun- 
try we take leave of the fugitive verse of the period. 
Nationalism has become an established fact, and from 
the chaotic condition of our early literature a new 
order will soon arise, feeble at first, but growing with 
our national growth. Henceforward we shall direct 
attention to the development of our national poetry as 
evidenced in the works of recognized poets. In this 
chapter we have for the most part confined ourselves 
to the simple ballads of the people, rather than to the 
efforts of professional writers. These folk songs were 
composed contemporaneously with the events or while 



74 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the feelings inspired by those events were still upper- 
most in men's minds. All through the Revolution 
every important triumph of American arms was hailed 
with a paean of joy. American leaders were extolled 
in all manner of eulogistic verse, while the Tory gen- 
erals were patriotically ridiculed and lampooned. 

It is easy enough to scorn the crudeness and even 
coarseness of many of these productions. Their claims 
to literary beauty are the slightest. Yet the song and 
ballad literature of the early years of the Revolution 
occupies a much more important place relatively than 
does the same class of literature in our later wars. 
This, I repeat, is not at all on account of its intrinsic 
merit, but is due to its influence in forming and re- 
flecting public opinion, as well as to the comparative 
meagreness of the more ambitious poetic literature of 
the time. Regarding the matter simply from a liter- 
ary point of view, it is almost marvellous to us that 
our forefathers could be thrilled by such effusions, as 
it will doubtless be to our own descendants that mil- 
lions of hearts could be aroused to enthusiasm by such 
songs as "When this Cruel War is Over," and other 
sickly ballads that were popular on both sides during 
our Civil War. 

As we leave the arid period of our literature, we 
may observe the , forces at work that will in time 
quicken the long barren soil, until the once literary 
desert is made to bloom with a growth capable of 
depending solely upon its inherent excellence to com- 
mand respect and admiration. 



CHAPTER V 

FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 

1765-1815 

THE poetry of the Revolution and of the years 
immediately following is to-day for the most 
part unreadable. That of a more ambitious character, 
the now forgotten epics and dramas, was of the turgid, 
pathetic sort so irritating to modern readers. True 
imagination, as well as creative faculty, was entirely 
lacking. The spirit of nature was deliberately sacri- 
ficed to an artificial straining for effect fatal to liter- 
ary art. There is but one verse writer of that period 
whose works, as literature, are at all worthy of con- 
sideration. The transient writings of this author were 
favorites with the masses, but his more meritorious 
work was, even in the minds of the more cultivated, 
totally obscured by the soaring heroics of the Con- 
necticut singers. The demand was supposed to be 
for pretentious epics like "The Columbiad " and 
"The Conquest of Canaan." Simple lyrics breath- 
ing the spirit of the woodlands could attract no notice. 
The wild honeysuckle had no place among these arti- 
ficial flowers which betrayed their mechanism in every 
part. 

The most prolific poet of the Revolutionary era was 
unquestionably Philip Freneau. He is still frequently 
referred to as "the laureate of the Revolution," as 
though his patriotic verse constituted his sole claim 



76 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

to distinction. Though his contemporaries failed to 
realize it, Freneau's best work was of a different order. 
His songs and satires kept him prominently before the 
public, who cared little for the artistic value of his 
performance, while his imaginative works were over- 
looked. This young poet, discarding conventional 
types, was able to look into his own heart and write, 
to tell of Nature as he found her, and not as others 
had described, and to sing with clear notes the songs 
of freedom without rhetorical fustian. He did not 
deliberately set himself to work to produce a new 
national poetry, but simply gave utterance to the 
American spirit that animated his whole life. He 
sang because it was natural for him to do so, and his 
topics were those with which he was most familiar. 
Much that he wrote was perishable, but much also 
was the kind to endure. His lifetime from 1752 to 
1832 covered an important era in our literary history. 
During that period many of the stars in the poetical 
firmament of our colonial period had passed completely 
out of sight and memory. When Freneau was born 
the renegade American, James Ralph, had not yet 
closed his adventurous career; Byles and Green were 
in the flush of their fame. At the time of Freneau's 
death Bryant had an established reputation. Longfel- 
low, Whittier, Holmes, Emerson, and Poe had already 
entered upon the scene. Lowell and Whitman were 
lads of thirteen. 

The circumstances of our Revolutionary War offered 
abundant opportunity for satire, and Freneau doubtless 
made the most of it. His effusions lacked the broad, 
farcical humor of Trumbull's "McFingal," and still 
more the obvious exalted moral purpose that inspired 
the " Biglow Papers " of a later age. Yet as practi- 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 77 

cally the first in the field, they are entitled to all the 
credit due to pioneer achievement. 

I do not know on what authority Professor John 
Nichol bases his statement that Freneau was a soldier 
in the American army. Our poet sang of arms, but his 
weapon was the pen. He wrote political articles and 
stirring appeals in both prose and verse, but there his 
activity ceased. During the Revolution he was fre- 
quently out of the country, and made several sea voy- 
ages. His title of captain is due to his nautical career 
and not to any military service. In 1776 he made a 
voyage to the West Indies, which is commemorated in 
several of his poems, notably "The Jamaica Funeral" 
and "The Beauties of Santa Cruz." 

Had Freneau lived and written in the next genera- 
tion he would undoubtedly have been an Abolitionist, 
staunch Democrat though he was. When living in 
New Jersey he freed his own slaves and took care of 
those unable to provide for themselves. Like a later 
poet, whom he somewhat resembles in his detestation 
of all moral and political despotism, he did not scruple 
to express in prose and verse his condemnation of slav- 
ery. In his poem on Santa Cruz he devotes several 
stanzas to this subject, and in speaking of the slave is 
moved to the indignant utterance : — 

" Curs'd be the ship that brought him o'er the main, 
And curs'd the hands that from his country tore, 
May she be stranded ne'er to float again, 

May they be shipwrecked on some hostile shore." 

In his lines to Sir Toby, and on emigration to 
America, he again expresses his sentiments without 
reservation. He also uses his verse to convey his dis- 
approval of imprisoning for debt. 

His "Cantos from a Prison Ship" is the most in- 



78 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

tensely American narrative poem in theme and treat- 
ment that up to that time had been written. Its 
descriptions are given v\7ith vigor and simplicity, not 
the less interesting on account of their historical cor- 
rectness. That it has its faults cannot be denied. 
That he perhaps allows his fancy sometimes to give 
a too vivid coloring may also be admitted, for it is 
unreasonable to suppose that a person of his ardent 
temperament should be able to give an unimpassioned 
chronicle of those shocking brutalities. 

Naturally the enthusiasm aroused by Freneau's war 
poems waned with the occasions that inspired them. 
No poet can expect a place with the immortals who 
depends upon passing events for the impressions cre- 
ated by his verse. His best work, however, was not 
of a transitory character. One of the qualities which 
places Freneau easily first among his contemporary 
poets of America is his appreciation of nature. There 
is a delicate sentiment in some of his simpler poems 
that stamps them with the signet of pure poetry. 
This is especially noticeable in little lyrics like "The 
Honey Bee," which Stedman declares to be worthy of 
a Landor, or the "Wild Honeysuckle," whose brief 
span of existence exemplifies 

" The frail duration of a flower," 

and the less familiar "May to April." 

Freneau was our first poet who properly interpreted 
the Indian character. His Indian poems are all cred- 
itable. There are only about a half a dozen of these 
lyrics, but they show that their author appreciated the 
simple love of nature displayed by the early Indians, 
and that he fully understood the obstacles in the way 
of civilizing them. This is well exemplified in the 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 79 

little poem, "The Indian Student." As a work of 
art, however, that is not to be compared with "The 
Dying Indian," with its picturesque opening: — 

" On yonder lake I spread the sail no more, 
Vigor and youth and active days are past ; 
Relentless demons urge me to that shore 

On whose black forests all the dead are cast." 

But the most interesting of all Freneau's poems of 
this class is his "Indian Burying Ground." This first 
appeared in his volume of "Miscellaneous Works," 
published in 1788, and was slightly changed in the 
edition of 1795. It at once suggests a parallelism 
with Schiller's "Indian Death Dirge," which Goethe 
pronounced to be one of the best ballads written by 
Schiller, and which, apparently, was not written until 
after 1793. Both poems are easily accessible to the 
general reader, the one in Bulwer Lytton's excellent 
translation and the other in almost any anthology of 
American verse. The subject is suggested by the 
custom of burying the Indian in a sitting posture, with 
his wampum, images, and weapons by his side. Both 
lyrics undoubtedly originated in the same source, 
Carver's "Travels Through North America" (1778). 
But Carver simply mentions the fact with no attempt 
at rhetorical embellishment. The tone and purpose 
assumed by the famous German and the obscure 
American, the thoughts and general treatment, are 
so similar that the coincidence is startling. It may 
be added that Freneau's poem loses nothing by com- 
parison with the later effort of Schiller. It is this 
lyric of Freneau's, as the reader will recollect, that 
contains the lines, — 

" The hunter still the deer pursues, 
The hunter and the deer — a shade," 



8o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

which Campbell compliments by borrowing for his 
poem, "O'Connor's Child." Literary historians have 
frequently commented on this manifest appropriation 
by Campbell, as well as Scott's conversion to his own 
use in " Marmion " of a line in Freneau's poem on 
Eutaw Springs. 

To accuse creative poets like Scott and Campbell 
of plagiarizing from Freneau would be absurd. The 
coincidences simply prove that both these writers had 
read Freneau and been deeply impressed by him. 
There are plenty of such instances of " unconscious 
cerebration " in literary history. No such defence, 
however, can be urged in the case of Freneau's "Death 
Song of a Cherokee Indian." This appears in Carey's 
"American Museum" for January, 1787. When an 
English lady, Mrs. Anne Hunter, published her poems 
in 1806, this piece appeared in the volume as her own 
composition, almost word for word as Freneau had 
written it, except that some slight verbal changes 
and transpositions were made in the second and third 
stanzas. It would be a stretch of courtesy to call such 
an effort the result of " unconscious cerebration " on the 
part of that gifted lady. Professor John Nichol says 
that these lines "have been claimed by Mrs, Edge- 
worth for Mrs. Hunter, but I believe them to be 
Freneau's. Henry Clay in his great speech on the 
Seminole war of 1819 so quotes them, and he ought 
to have known the authorship. They in any case are 
the keynote of the last words of the Oneida chief in 
Campbell's 'Gertrude of Wyoming.'" 

The reference to Henry Clay's speech is, I fear, 
another instance of hasty statement on the part of this 
distinguished Scotch critic. Clay does not mention 
Freneau. What he did say was : " The poet evinced 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOJR 8i 

a profound knowledge of the Indian character when he 
put into the mouth of a son of a distinguished chief 
about to be led to the stake and tortured by a victo- 
rious enemy, the words : — 

" Begin, ye tormentors, your threats are in vain; 
The son of Alknomook will never complain." 

Singularly enough his spelling of Alknomook is not 
that of Freneau but of Mrs. Hunter. Duyckinck com- 
mits a still graver error in stating that the poem ap- 
pears imder Freneau' s name in the first volume of the 
"American Museum." It appears on a different page 
from the one mentioned, with no name whatever 
attached, but under the general heading, "Select 
Poetry, Ancient and Modern." 

Though both Duyckinck and Nichol fail in their 
authorities, there is no reasonable doubt as to Fre- 
neau' s authorship. The poem was popularly attrib- 
uted to him during his lifetime, and his rugged 
honesty, where no question of politics was concerned, 
would never have allowed him to retain credit to which 
he was not entitled. Samuel L. Knapp, who had 
special opportunities for the investigation of all mat- 
ters relating to our nascent literature, wrote several 
years before Freneau's death: "Freneau's pieces are 
very unequal. Some of them were probably thrown 
off in haste, and others polished with " care. The 
Address to Ferdinand is a very happy effort, and his 
Indian Death Song has been very much admired." 
The " Death Song " is then quoted as it appears anony- 
mously in Carey's "Museum." 

Freneau was a man of affairs rather than a man of 

letters. His English is not always the purest, and 

his grammar is occasionally faulty, though he devoted 

much time to the study of the classics long after leav- 

6 



82 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

ing college. He wrote a number of translations from 
French and Latin poets, and a rhymed epistle on the 
folly of studying the dead languages. He delighted 
to show his familiarity with what he terms "Latin 
lore and heathen Greek," and has given us some in- 
different verses on "The Prayer of Orpheus," "The 
Monument of Phaon," "The Pyramids of Egypt," 
" Quintilian to Lycidas," and "Mars and Venus." 
That he was not exempt from the prevalent cloying 
contagion of Delia Cruscanism may be inferred from 
such titles as "Philander and Lavinia," "Palemon to 
Lavinia," "On Amanda's Singing Bird," "Amanda's 
Complaint," "Philander to Amanda," "To Clarissa," 
"To Cynthia," and the like. Bluff sea captain that he 
is, and not unfamiliar with grim-visaged war, he is not 
above devoting himself to "the lascivious pleasing of 
the lute." 

Among his minor poems showing a graceful touch 
should be classed his "Ode to Fancy" and "Fancy's 
Ramble." He has left us one imaginative poem, how- 
ever, far nobler than many on which much greater 
reputations have been based. " The House of Night, 
a Vision," clearly outranks all efforts of the imagina- 
tion which our early literature produced. It has its 
faults, glaring defects, with lines and even whole 
stanzas that might have been improved or omitted. 
Yet, for an American production at that period, it is 
strikingly original in spite of occasional echoes of 
Pope and Gray. It was written in 1776, and first pub- 
lished in the "United States Magazine" in 1779. It 
then consisted of seventy-three stanzas. When pub- 
lished in the first edition of the author's poems it was 
enlarged to one hundred and thirty-six stanzas. It is 
from that edition that the extracts to follow are taken. 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 83 

Because this is the first long poem in our literature 
showing any degree of creative power, and because it 
is now almost entirely unknown to the readers of 
verse, it has been deemed essential to refer to it at 
some length. In one of his early prose essays Freneau 
remarks: "There are few writers of books in this New 
World, and amongst these very few that deal in works 
of imagination, and, I am sorry to say, fewer still that 
have any success attending their lucubrations." It 
was perhaps owing to the popular indifference to his 
most creditable "work of the imagination" that its 
author saw fit to cut it down to a meaningless frag- 
ment of twenty-one stanzas, under the title of "The 
Vision of the Night," in the revised edition of 1795. 
This poem alone, as published in the first volume, is 
sufficient to show what its author might have accom- 
plished by devoting himself to a purely literary career. 
The theme is unique. It represents Death as con- 
quered and lying on his bed of pain. The scene is a 
palace at midnight, the house of Cleon, whose young 
bride has but recently been claimed as one of Death's 
victims. In a spirit of Christian heroism Cleon has 
given shelter to his enemy, furnishing physicians and 
attendance to alleviate his misery. The dreamer roams 
at midnight over a plain "where murmuring streams 
and mingling rivers flow," through flowerless meads 
and blighted fields, whose trees are bare and lifeless. 

" Dark was the sky, and not one friendly star 
Shone from the zenith or horizon clear, 
Mist sat upon the woods and darkness rode 
In her black chariot with a wild career. 

" Rude from the wide extended Chesapeake 
I heard the winds the dashing waves assail, 
And saw from far by picturing fancy form'd 
The black ship moving through the noisy gale." 



84 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

At length, "by chance and guardian fancy led," he 
reaches a noble dome, from whose upper windows 
flamed lights presaging mirth and hospitality. This 
is only a delusion, for amid the most lugubrious sur- 
roundings he hears men's voices discoursing on death, 
coffins, shrouds, and horrors of the tomb. Passing by 
this, he comes upon a scene whose unearthly appear- 
ance could not have been more vividly depicted by 
Poe himself. 

" Then up three winding stairs my feet were brought, 
To a high chamber, hung with mourning sad, 
The unsnuff'd candles glar'd with visage dim, 
Midst grief in ecstacy of woe run mad." 

The stranger seeks to soothe Death's dying agonies, 
fetching cold spring water for his torturing thirst, and 
ministering to him chosen medicines, compounded of 
"dead men's bones and bitter roots," but all to no pur- 
pose. When Death realizes that he is indeed lost, he 
sends for the undertaker and orders his coffin built 
doubly strong, so as to cheat old Satan, late his trusty 
friend. The undertaker, in spite of past obligations, 
insists upon being paid in advance, a demand which 
elicits a bitter retort. Upon the withdrawal of the 
"wood-mechanic," Death describes the weird sur- 
roundings of the place destined to be his tomb, and 
gives instructions regarding his epitaph. This epi- 
taph, designed to show that Death himself is not above 
vanity and would be remembered with honor, is simply 
a boastful statement of his conquests for the past six 
thousand years. Scarce has Death concluded his 
charge, when a terrific storm breaks forth, " as though 
all music were to breathe its last." 

The poem ends with a few moral reflections on life 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 85 

and death, some of the concluding strains being not 
unworthy the author of "Thanatopsis." 

" Death is no more than one unceasing change. 
New forms arise while other forms decay, 
Yet all is life throughout creation's range. ... 

" True to itself the immortal soul remains. 

And seeks new mansions in the starry sphere. 

" When nature bids thee from the world retire, 
With joy thy lodging leave, a sated guest. 
In Paradise, the land of thy desire, 
Existing always, always to be blest." 

Freneau disliked the Puritans as much as Irving did, 
and enjoyed giving them an occasional thrust. His 
best humorous poem probably is his " Sketches of 
American History." No one can question Freneau's 
patriotism, and perhaps no other popular poet of that 
time could have ventured to satirize the early Ameri- 
can colonists. Whatever these "sketches" may lack 
in poetic quality, they at any rate offer a refreshing 
contrast to the well-meant but aggressive patriotism 
of that day. He clearly anticipates Diedrich Knicker- 
bocker in his humorous arraignment of the Puritans. 
In these collections may be found the revolutionary 
prototypes of a class of idyllic ballads familiar enough 
in our later literature. Of these may be mentioned 
"The Ruined Country Inn," "The Deserted Farm 
House," and "The Desolate Academy," the last a 
crude anticipation of Whittier's "In School Days." 
"The Dull Moralist" is suggestive of Dr. Holmes' 
"Moral Bully," though as far below it in artistic spirit 
as is Freneau's poem "The Catydid" below the Auto- 
crat's lines to the same insect. 

There is something of Whittier in Freneau's patriot- 
ism and detestation of all kinds of tyranny, something 



86 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of Bryant in love and interpretation of nature, some- 
thing of Longfellow in discerning treatment of Indian 
myths, something of Poe in the loftier imaginative 
strains, and something of Holmes and Lowell in cut- 
ting satire. A writer who, while lacking the depth 
of thought and intellectual vigor of any one of these, 
could still foreshadow something of the genius of our 
greatest singers, would certainly seem entitled to the 
designation of our earliest national poet. 

Freneau's ballads might do well enough for the 
common soldier, but were not at all suited to the 
scholastic taste of the period. His simple lyrics were 
entirely too modest to satisfy the soaring ambition of 
certain aspirants. Besides, some of his poems betrayed 
imagination, and the imaginative faculty was the last 
thing to be endured by this "tuneful brotherhood." 

During the half century following the year 1761 the 
literary prestige of Massachusetts underwent a tempo- 
rary eclipse. Whatever the cause, immediately after 
the appearance of "Pietas et Gratulatio," the Massa- 
chusetts Muse seems to have labored under a literary 
paralysis, lasting until the arrival of a new generation. 
The sceptre passed from Harvard to Yale as the aca- 
demic centre of American poetry. The new-born 
Pegasus found his grazing ground in Connecticut, with 
an occasional excursion into the Middle States. Scat- 
tered singers, it is true, appeared in the Old Bay State, 
but their voices were nearly drowned in the swelling 
strains of a remarkable chorus that drew attention by 
its sonorous, if not melodious, utterances. The Con- 
necticut singers were fully determined to show the 
world what American poetry should be. 

The literary careers of several members of the choir 
began before the Revolution, and ended in the early 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 87 

years of the nineteenth century. These writers lived 
through the stirring scenes that attended the birth 
throes of a nation, and some by the sword and all by 
the pen rendered service to their native land. They 
were great in many things, whatever may be thought 
of their verse-making. But it was as poets that they, 
and their friends for them, appealed to mankind, and 
it is in that capacity that they are to be judges. 
Numerically, at least, the Muses were fitly represented 
by this band. They were nine in number, consisting 
of Timothy and Theodore Dwight, Joel Barlow, David 
Humphreys, John Trumbull, Lemuel Hopkins, Rich- 
ard Alsop, Elihu H. Smith, and M. F. Coggswell. 
As one star differs from another in glory, it would be 
unreasonable to expect them all to shine with equal 
effulgence. Theodore Dwight, Smith, Coggswell, and 
Hopkins could hardly claim the degree of brilliancy 
displayed by Timothy Dwight, Barlow, Humphreys, 
Trumbull, and Alsop. In fact, the lesser luminaries 
shone almost entirely by reflected light. Their poetic 
reputation is due in great measure to their association 
with others. The members of this group never tire of 
impressing upon the world each other's greatness. If 
we are to take their estimates of each other, certainly 
never since the morning stars sang together has there 
been such a galaxy of singers. 

After the overwhelming testimony to the greatness 
of these bards, it is with many misgivings that we 
venture a contemplation of their merits. No set of 
men ever applied themselves so industriously to the 
manufacture of poetic material. If they did not suc- 
ceed in convincing posterity and the world in general 
that they were the genuine high priests of native 
American Apollo, it was not through lack of effort. 



88 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

The Reverend Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) was a 
fit type of the best American citizenship of his day. 
As the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, he worthily pre- 
served the theological traditions of his family. He 
graduated at Yale in the class of 1769, and in 1795 
was called to the presidency of his college, a position 
which he filled with distinction until his death. Be- 
sides his poetical writings, he was author of a five- 
volume work on theology. One of his hymns, 

" I love thy kingdom, Lord, 
The house of thine abode," 

is still sung in the churches. His longest metrical 
work, "The Conquest of Canaan," is one for whose 
appearance there was not the slightest excuse. His 
friends have urged in its extenuation that it was writ- 
ten when its author was but twenty years of age, and 
that therefore it must not be judged by the same 
canons of criticism that are applied to more mature 
works. But it should be remembered that it was not 
published until ten years after it was written, a period 
long enough for the author to correct the follies of his 
callow youth. What was an ordinary production in a 
youth of twenty, was execrable in a man of thirty. 

"The Conquest of Canaan " is a long, tedious effort, 
extending through eleven books, "to represent such 
manners as are removed from the peculiarities of any 
age or country, and might belong to the amiable and 
virtuous of any period, elevated without design, refined 
without ceremony, elegant without fashion, and agree- 
able because they are ornamented with sincerity, dig- 
nity, and religion," The versification is fair, but 
monotonous, and there is no unity of design. The 
author was willing to rest his reputation as a poet on 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 89 

this work, which in all sincerity he believed to be as 
meritorious as the Iliad or JEneid. There is nothing 
very original or pleasing in the whole performance. 
Though dealing with wars of the Israelites, incidents 
of our own Revolution, as the death of Warren, are 
introduced, and the din and roar of contending hosts 
compared to Niagara Falls. 

The adulation of his brother bards availed little in 
rescuing from oblivion this ponderous production. 
One of our foremost men of letters of that day. Dr. 
Dennie, made special efforts to popularize the " Great 
epic," but met with no success. 

"The Triumph of Infidelity" (1788) is a versified 
theological treatise, directed against the current infi- 
delity, and contains some well-expressed satire upon 
the "smooth divine." "Greenfield Hill" (1794) was 
a little more successful. It is true there was more 
preaching than poetry in it, but it dealt in home 
themes, and was a decided advance on its predeces- 
sors. Its didacticism was something formidable, as 
was to be expected. 

Dr. Dwight was certainly a strong man in his day. 
As patriot, theologian, educator, controversialist, and 
citizen, if not as a poet, he was truly and eminently 
great. The earliest known use of the word " Columbia " 
as applied to America occurs in his song " Columbia, 
Columbia, to Glory arise," written while a chaplain in 
the American army. 

Younger by two years than Dr. Dwight was his asso- 
ciate and rival in epic fields, Joel Barlow (1754-1812). 
The latter graduated at Yale in 1778, when he deliv- 
ered his poem "The Prospect of Peace." Here was 
begun his lifelong acquaintance with Dwight, Trum- 
bull, and Humphreys, themselves all Yale graduates. 



go HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Barlow does not seem to have been in the least 
adapted to theology, though he did write a few hymns. 
But army chaplains were in great demand then. So 
in 1780, after a course of six weeks' study, he branched 
out as a full-fledged parson. "I do not know," he 
wrote, " whether I shall do more for the cause in the 
capacity of chaplain, than I would in that of poet: I 
have great faith in the influence of songs; and I shall 
continue, while fulfilling the duties of my appoint- 
ment, to write one now and then, and to encourage the 
taste for them, which I find in the camp. One good 
song is worth a dozen addresses or proclamations." 
He retained his clerical position for about three years, 
abandoning it when the close of the war dispensed 
with the necessity for his office. In 1785 a reminis- 
cence of his theological period appeared in the shape 
of a book published at Hartford, entitled "Dr. Watts' 
Imitation of the Psalms of David, corrected and en- 
larged by Joel Barlow, to which is added a collection 
of Hymns." The rendition of the one hundred and 
thirty-seventh Psalm was the work of Barlow, and 
retained its admirers for a century. 

Turning editor, he assumed charge of the "Ameri- 
can Mercury" at Hartford, at the same time pursuing 
the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. 
It was during this period that he became associated 
with the little band long known as the " Hartford 
Wits." 

That the "Vision of Columbus" was a success no 
one in these days would claim, chiefly because few 
ever read it far enough to pass a critical judgment on 
it, and, secondly, because the violations of good taste 
and of literary propriety are so glaring as to over- 
shadow what little merit it really possessed. It found 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 91 

plenty of contemporary admirers, however, and met 
with sufficient encouragement to delude the author in 
after years to inflate it far beyond its original limits 
when it was remodelled in the form of " The Colum- 
biad. " It would be a sheer waste of effort to point 
out the changes. Barlow preferred to let his earlier 
production be forgotten, and to rest his fame on the 
more ambitious epic. 

The publication of "The Vision" in this country as 
well as in London and Paris secured a certain degree 
of fame for its author. He was soon after appointed 
foreign agent of the Scioto Land Company, a swind- 
ling concern, though Barlow himself was innocent of 
its fraudulent character. He resigned his position 
when he learned the truth after his arrival in Europe. 
He remained abroad after severing his connection 
with the land company, dividing most of his time be- 
tween London and Paris, being on intimate terms with 
many of the most eminent men in both cities. While 
in London in 1791-92 he undertook the publication of 
his "Advice to the Privileged Orders." The privi- 
leged orders showed their appreciation of his advice 
by procuring its proscription by the British govern- 
ment. The work was bitterly assailed by Burke, 
whom Barlow attacked in his furious diatribe, "The 
Conspiracy of Kings," published in February, 1792, in 
which his animosity finds vent in such expressions as 
"Burke's mad foam," "Oh Burke, degenerate slave!" 
and "Burke leads you wrong, the world is not his 
own." 

The one great characteristic of Barlow, to which he 
owed his successes, was undoubtedly his sublime 
audacity. The self-assurance which sent him into the 
ranks of the scholarly New England clergy after a 



92 



HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 



training of six weeks, carried him through most try- 
ing ordeals. The same spirit which led the once 
obscure chaplain of the Revolutionary army to give, 
in the very stronghold of English aristocracy, pointed 
advice to the privileged classes, and to measure swords 
with Burke himself; afterward to beard the piratical 
Dey of Algiers in his lair and succeed in rescuing a 
number of his countrymen from chains; and in the 
last days of his life to contend for American inter- 
ests with the most conspicuous figure of his age, — 
led him to try his powers in a very different field. 
He essayed to supplant the greatest bards of anti- 
quity, and his audacity, taking the form of colossal 
self-conceit, succeeded only in making his name mem- 
orable as a by-word in connection with literary 
failures. 

The great work by which Barlow expected to trans- 
mit his name through the ages was, it is needless to 
say, his epic, "The Columbiad," which came to light 
in 1807. He was evidently not satisfied with ridding 
the world of sultans, kings, czars, and emperors, those 
"crested reptiles," as he terms them in his "Conspir- 
acy of Kings." He must now turn his hand against 
the monarchs of song. The moral tendency of the 
JEuQid he declared to be pernicious. "Homer's ex- 
istence was one of the signal misfortunes of mankind," 
he writes in his preface to "The Columbiad." Having 
thus effectually disposed of the father of Greek poetry, 
he cheerfully strikes his own lyre and begins. The 
imprisoned Columbus is represented as deliberating 
over his unhappy fate and bewailing the world's 
ingratitude. 

" Thus mourned the hapless man. A thundering sound 
Rolled through the shuddering wall, and shook the grotind, 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 93 

O'er all the dungeon, where black arches bend, 
The roofs unfold, and streams of Hght descend. 
The growing splendor fills the astonished room, 
And gules etherial breathe a glad perfume." 

The occasion of this strange manifestation is the 
visit of Hesper, the genius of the western world, 
under whose magical guidance Columbus is led up a 
"heaven-illumined road," and from the clear summit 
is treated to a panoramic view of the results of his dis- 
coveries. To call such a thing an epic is a perversion 
of terms. It is a high-strung geographical, historical, 
political, and philosophical disquisition, as uninterest- 
ing and unpoetic as Madame Anne Bradstreet's dis- 
quisition on the four monarchies. A brief view is 
presented of the state of Europe during the Middle 
Ages, followed by a more extended description of the 
American discoveries, the conquests of Mexico and 
Peru, the colonization of North America, the colonial 
trials, and the Revolutionary war. Events still fresh 
in men's minds, besides some entirely fictitious, and 
characters still living, are introduced. Complimentary 
notices are bestowed upon the author's fellow poets of 
Connecticut, the Revolutionary heroes, and the sages 
and statesmen of his time. It is a sort of literary 
dragnet, designed to catch anything that suggests it- 
self to his brain. Among other pleasant things, Hes- 
per discloses the extent of internal improvements that 
are to grace the land, though his gift of prophecy 
unfortunately falls short of anything beyond the age 
of canals as a medium of interstate commerce. The 
whole ends with a vision of the glories yet to be, when 
the victories of peace shall eclipse those of war, and 
the dreams of Utopia shall become an actuality. 

It is creditable to the tastes of the poet's country- 



94 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

men that they refused to recognize any merit in the 
book, in spite of its strained patriotism. In America, 
the " epic " was a failure, though it received some 
notices, flattering as well as adverse, from British 
critics. Barlow ascribed its failure to political causes, 
he being a Democrat, and leaders of literary opinion 
presumably belonging to the opposition, just as Dr. 
Dwight attributed the failure of his pietistic epic to 
the prevalence of infidelity. Both epics sank out of 
sight, weighted down by their own leaden gravity. 
" The Columbiad," from beginning to end of its seven 
thousand three hundred and fifty lines, is insufferably 
dull. It is the soporific influences of Barlow's Colum- 
bian poems, and the utterly depressing effect of 
Dwight's pointless epic, that give special significance 
to the delightfully unconscious irony of Humphreys' 
query, — 

" Why sleepst thou, Barlow, child of genius? Why 
Seest thou, blest Dwight, our land in sadness lie .-*" 

Very different from Dwight and Barlow in his aspi- 
rations, but more successful in achievement, was Judge 
John Trumbull (1750-183 1). Without attempting to 
rival the great of antiquity, his genius was the most 
original of any of the Connecticut choir. His aim 
perhaps was not the highest, but he displayed an 
admirable faculty of hitting the mark every time. 
His chosen field was burlesque, and in it he was 
master. 

Trumbull's career was one of those exceptionable 
cases of a prolonged life fulfilling the promise of 
youthful precocity. At five he was studying Greek 
and Latin, and at seven offered himself for admission 
to the freshman class at Yale. There is something 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 95 

almost pathetic in the glimpse a writer gives of this 
sickly lad of barely seven summers seated on the lap 
of Dr. Emmons while undergoing examination in the 
required studies, and coming out triumphant. It was 
deemed advisable, on account of his extreme youth and 
poor health, to wait six years. He did not graduate, 
therefore, until 1767. In 1771 Trumbull and D wight 
were appointed tutors at Yale, the former leaving at 
the end of two years to practise law. 

Removing to Boston, Trumbull was caught in the 
whirl of politics. "The year 1775," he writes, "was 
a period of terror and dismay. Unconditional submis- 
sion, or a total rejection of the authority of the crown, 
presented the only alternative. Every exertion was 
made by the friends of American liberty to inspire 
confidence in our cause, to crush the efforts of the Tory 
party, and to prepare the public mind for the Decla- 
ration of Independence." Under such circumstances, 
at the solicitation of some of his friends in Congress 
Trumbull wrote the first part of his best-known work, 
" McFingal," which was immediately published in 
Philadelphia, and passed through thirty editions, be- 
sides enjoying a sort of notoriety in England. The 
work was not completed until 1782. 

The poem is itself one of the best contemporary 
descriptions of men and manners in the revolutionary 
times, and for this, if for no other reason, is deserving 
of commendation. Its satire is stinging, and as one of 
the patriot forces of the Revolution, its effect can hardly 
be overestimated. Though In confessed imitation of 
Butler's " Hudibras," it would not be difficult to find lines 
in which the disciple has risen above his master. It has 
been said that the " Tories felt a greater hatred to the 
poet, who had made them ridiculous, than to the soldier 



96 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

who destroyed their ranks by hundreds." However that 
may be, the work received its due share of attention in 
Europe as well as in America. It was in effect the rev- 
olutionary prototype of " The Biglow Papers." 

The design of the poem is simple enough. Squire 
McFingal is the type of the Tory, king-loving New 
Englanders, while Honorius represents the Whig, or 
patriot, element. The poem is chiefly taken up with 
the speeches of these two, and the misadventures of the 
Squire in seeking to antagonize the Yankee mobs. 

Nothing was farther from the author's intention than 
to write a classic. The object of the work was purely 
political, and it served its purpose. Yet it is the only 
long poem by any of the Connecticut choir that finds 
readers to-day. It is also the only work of that band 
that has furnished popular proverbs, of which the most 
common is, — 

" No man e'er felt the halter draw 
With good opinion of the law : 
Or held in methods orthodox 
His love of justice in the stocks." 

"McFingal" found appreciative admirers in France 
as well as in Great Britain. " I believe," wrote Marquis 
de Chastellux from Paris in 1784, " that you have rifled 
every flower which that kind of poetry could ofifer." 
After setting forth in detail the requirements of bur- 
lesque poetry, the Marquis adds : " These you have 
happily seized and perfectly complied with, nor do I 
hesitate to assure you that I prefer it to every work of 
the kind, even to ' Hudibras,' " and concludes by asking 
for copies of " McFingal " for distribution in France. 
The minor poems of Trumbull are patriotic, didactic, 
and elegiac, with attempts at paraphrase and translation. 

Quite as interesting a personality as the three already 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 97 

mentioned was the warrior poet, Colonel David Hum- 
phreys (1753-1818), who graduated at Yale in 1771. At 
the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the patriot 
army as captain. He was subsequently on the staff of 
General Putnam as major, and in 1780 became aide-de- 
camp to Washington with the rank of colonel. He ren- 
dered distinguished services and was a devoted adherent 
of General Washington. After the Revolution he spent 
much of his time as a guest at Mount Vernon. Upon 
his return from Europe in 1786 he was associated with 
the "Hartford Wits." In 1791 he was sent as first 
American minister to Lisbon, and in 1797 as minister 
plenipotentiary to Spain, where he remained until 1802. 

All of Humphreys' longer poems are of a patriotic 
character, with constant allusions to Washington. The 
personal glimpses given of his chief are of course 
always interesting, though unfriendly critics might be 
disposed to question the taste of the writer in so 
constantly associating his own name with that of his 
chieftain. 

The chief poems of Humphreys are " An Address to 
the Armies of the United States," " On the Happiness 
of America," " On the Future Glory of the United 
States," " On the Love of Country," and " On the Death 
of General Washington." In the preface to one of 
his poems he very properly remarks : " To make use of 
poetry for strengthening patriotism, promoting virtue, 
and extending happiness is to bring it back to its 
primitive exalted employment." This is very true, but 
the similarity of his theme soon grows monotonous and 
renders continuous reading for pleasure impossible. In 
spite of his aggressive Americanism, Humphreys did 
not disdain the arts of the courtier. His " Address to 
the Armies " is dedicated to the Duke de Rochefoucauld j 

7 



98 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

his "Industry of the United States," to "His Royal 
Highness the Prince Regent of Portugal;" and his 
" Love of Country," to " His Majesty Louis, King of 
Etruria, Hereditary Prince of Parma, Infant of Spain, 
&c. &c. &c." The list of subscribers to his poems is 
headed with " His Catholic Majesty," " Her Cathohc 
Majesty," President Jefferson and ex-President Adams, 
followed by Duke of Alafoens, Chevalier de Adlerberg, 
M. de Aguirre and Sons, Don Zenon Alonso, and a host 
of other more or less distinguished Europeans and 
Americans. 

The first mentioned poem, " The Address," attained 
a considerable degree of success, was favorably reviewed 
by English and French critics, and translated into 
French by the Marquis de Chastellux. The object of 
the poem was " to inspire our countrymen now in arms, 
or who may hereafter be called into the field with per- 
severance, and fortitude, through every species of diffi- 
culty and danger, to continue their exertions for the 
defence of their country, and the preservation of its 
liberties." The frequent use of such expressions as 
" Ye martial bands," " Ye gallant youths," " What time 
proud Albion thundering o'er the waves," " The horrid 
sounds of war," etc., becomes tiresome. The poem on 
" The Happiness of America" had the good fortune to 
pass through ten editions. Written with the patriotic 
purpose of stimulating and encouraging the people 
during the trying times that immediately succeeded the 
Revolution, it includes a rhymed version of Washington's 
" Farewell Address," from which the author proceeds to 
discuss the happiness of Americans as a free and agri- 
cultural people, the pleasures of peace succeeding the 
horrors of war, the beauties of American domestic life, 
and the advantages of agriculture and commerce. An 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR 99 

unoffending mediocrity is the chief characteristic of 
Humphreys' patriotic poems. 

Richard Alsop (1761-1815) was a student, but not 
a graduate of Yale. He was a man of letters simply, 
whose fame rests entirely on his written works. Mr. 
Elihu H. Smith, himself one of "the tuneful brother- 
hood," refers to him as " Mr. Alsop, a poet, who, 
were his ambition equal to his talents, would appear 
among the poets of his time, velut inter ignes luna 
minores." Smith's reference to his contemporaries as 
ignes fni7tores is hardly gracious, but his comparison 
of Alsop to Luna was unconsciously appropriate, for 
a great deal of the light with which Alsop shone was 
borrowed. Much of his best work was translation. 
He was an intelligent student of French, Italian, Spanish, 
Greek, and Latin, and gave some excellent renderings 
from each. His long poem, " The Charms of Fancy," 
written in his youth, was not published in full, and his 
" Conquest of Scandinavia " was never finished. His 
long poem on the death of Washington has been 
frequently printed, as well as a number of his contri- 
butions to " The Political Greenhouse " and " The Echo." 
His " Hymn to Peace," written at the close of the last 
war with England, is not without merit. His most 
popular verses were political, written in conjunction 
with the " Hartford Wits." 

Dr. Elihu H. Smith enjoys the distinction of having 
edited the first compilation of American poetry. The 
volume under the title "American Poems, Selected 
and Original," was published at Litchfield in 1793, and 
contained poems by the Connecticut singers, William 
Livingston, and other writers known and unknown. 
It is an interesting historical curiosity, showing the 
development of American poetry in the last decade of 

L.ofC. 



loo HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the eighteenth century. As one of our literary land- 
marks, it has been the means of rescuing from oblivion 
some things that in an historical sense were worth 
preserving. 

The original works of Dr. Smith are of slight im- 
portance, consisting chiefly of "Edwin and Angelina," 
an opera, and a poetical epistle to Dr. Darwin, author 
of " The Botanic Garden. " The former was acted in 
1794, and, as we are informed, was "highly successful " 
as an opera, if not as a poem. Dr. Smith died in 1798, 
a martyr to professional generosity, having received 
into his house a brother physician prostrated with 
yellow fever, from whom he caught the contagion and 
died. 

The individual efforts of the remainder of the Con- 
necticut group are not worthy of special mention. 
Lemuel Hopkins and Theodore Dwight, brother of 
Timothy, wrote a few short poems which found ad- 
mirers. Dr. M. F. Coggswell wrote no poetry except 
a few contributions to "The Echo," but each of the 
three last named wrote sufficient to be entitled to a 
place among the "Hartford Wits." The last was a 
name bestowed on members of the Connecticut band 
who contributed to the three satirical collections 
known as "The Anarchiad," "The Echo," and "The 
Political Greenhouse." 

"The Anarchiad" was the joint production of Bar- 
low, Humphreys, Trumbull, and Hopkins. The disor- 
ganized condition of the country at the close of the 
Revolution marked one of the "critical periods " in our 
history. Impoverished by the war, with no firm estab- 
lished government, the people were disheartened and 
discouraged. The spirit of disunion was rampant and 
civil war imminent. It was during this time, in 1786 



FRENEAU AND THE CONNECTICUT CHOIR loi 

and 1787, that "The Anarchiad " was published. The 
work, though satirical, was an earnest plea for nation- 
alism as against disunion, and for law and stability as 
against incipient anarchy. 

" The Echo " was a series of satirical effusions pub- 
lished in the newspapers from 1791 to 1796, by Alsop 
and Theodore Dwight, assisted by Hopkins, Coggswell, 
and Smith. The work was begun as a travesty on the 
inflated style of reporting then in vogue among the 
newspapers. The satirists held up to ridicule the kind 
of " newspaper English " then prevalent, and if they 
did not laugh it out of existence, did much in toning 
down current grandiloquence. Afterwards the authors 
devoted themselves to partisan politics, bitterly assail- 
ing the Jeffersonian faction. 

"The Political Greenhouse " was written by Alsop, 
Hopkins, and Theodore Dwight in 1799, and repub- 
lished in the same volume with "The Echo" series. 
There is little of permanent literary interest in 
either. Both lack the simplicity and historical por- 
traitures that make " McFingal " still readable, and 
are below the standard of nationalism that marks "The 
Anarchiad." 

" The Echo " and " The Political Greenhouse " have 
passed utterly out of men's minds. "The Anarchiad" 
is as little read as its English prototype "The Rolliad." 
But if contemporary testimony is to be credited, these 
satirical writings wielded a powerful influence in their 
day. The shallowest critic can find much to ridicule 
in the works of the Connecticut singers. Yet these 
writers rendered a noble service to their country. 
There was not a great poet among them, but they 
were all patriots actuated by highest motives. In the 
formative period of our history they did much to mould 



IQ2 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

public opinion in favor of national union and integrity. 
As among the forces contributing to that end, their 
influence will continue to be felt, though their names 
be forgotten. Besides this, they did much to elevate 
the standard of literary taste then prevalent, and to 
prepare the way for greater poets. While, therefore, 
we cannot accept their own literary estimates of each 
other, we should be unjust to let their amiable failings 
blind us to the really honorable services they rendered 
their country. 



CHAPTER VI 

DELL A CRUSCAN ECHOES 

1785-1815 

FOR more than a century after the appearance of 
Mrs. Bradstreet's forbidding volume of verse, 
no female poet of any distinction, if we except the 
youthful Jane Turell, had appeared in America. The 
awakening of the literary spirit during the transition 
period is characterized by the sudden appearance and 
relative importance of female singers, whose voices 
were not altogether lost amid the clash of arms and 
discords of politics. 

Foremost in time among these was Miss Phillis 
Wheatley, the precocious negro poetess of revolutionary 
Boston, whose poems have passed through many edi- 
tions. A woman of remarkable intellectual force was 
Mrs. Mercy Warren, also of Boston, whose advice was 
sought by such men as the Adamses and Thomas 
Jefferson. She was known even to write speeches for 
some of the members of the Continental Convention of 
1788. One of the speakers, it is said, was detected 
" in his borrowed plumage by the elegance of the style 
of his oration, and from his ignorance of some of her 
classical allusions." Mrs. Warren's long and useful 
life extended from 1728 to 18 14. In 1773 she pub- 
lished "The Adulator," and two years later "The 
Group," both political satires. Her tragedies, "The 
Sack of Rome" and "The Ladies of Castile," are now 



I04 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

quite forgotten, though in their day they found admir- 
ers. Her tragedies and lighter poems were collected 
and published as " Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous, 
by Mrs. M. Warren, Boston, 1790." Fifteen years 
later, in her seventy-eighth year, she published her 
three-volume history of the Revolution, a work still 
regarded as an authority. 

Mrs. Warren's poems are characterized by good taste 
and pleasing though by no means faultless diction. 
Her best known poem is the one written to Hon. John 
Winthrop in 1774, regarding the necessaries of life to 
be exempted from the threatened suspension of trade 
with the mother country. 

Mrs. Ann Eliza Bleecker, though not conspicuous 
like Mrs. Warren in public affairs, was put to far 
severer tests. The sufferings brought upon her while 
a resident of the New York wilderness during the Revo- 
lution resulted in a brooding melancholy from which 
she never recovered. Mrs. Bleecker's works were 
published in 1793 in a volume including some poems 
by her daughter, Mrs. Margaretta V. Faugeres. 
Neither of these ladies was a great singer, but as the 
earliest female poets of New York and the Hudson 
River, they are both entitled to honorable mention. 
Pennsylvania found a tuneful if not powerful voice in 
Mrs. Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson, the story of whose 
social and domestic life possesses greater interest than 
that of her now forgotten literary career. 

The youngest of this interesting sisterhood was Mrs. 
Susannah Haswell Rowson, daughter of a lieutenant in 
the British navy. She became an American by reason 
of her father settling in Massachusetts when she was 
but five years old. Owing to reversals after marriage, 
Mrs. Rowson was obliged to go upon the stage, some- 



BELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES 105 

times acting in plays which she herself had written. 
Her first appearance upon the American stage was in 
1793, at Annapolis. She became famous as the author 
of "Charlotte Temple," a tearful romance, which still 
finds readers. She was a versatile writer, producing 
a number of sentimental novels, short tales, dramas, 
and school text-books. Her reputation as a writer of 
verse rests upon her "Miscellaneous Poems," pub- 
lished in Boston in 1804. Her lyric "America, Com- 
merce and Freedom " attained a considerable degree 
of popularity as one of the patriotic songs of the 
period, though hardly exhibiting a spirit of feminine 
refinement. 

Taking them all in all, these songstresses consti- 
tuted a singular group. An ungallant cynic might 
well ask what degree of literary excellence would be 
expected of a band made up chiefly of a negro slave, a 
female revolutionist, a hypochondriac, a society belle, 
and a gushing sentimentalist. Yet it was from such 
a heterogeneous source that our infant literature was 
receiving its nourishment. It was a sentimental era in 
poetry, and this fact may account for the sudden pre- 
ponderance of the gentler sex. 

About the year 1785 some English ladies and gentle- 
men resident in Plorence, and devoted to nothing 
more serious than aesthetic dilettanteism, contributed 
their amateur literary effusions to a periodical which 
they called "The Florence Miscellany." Reviving a 
sixteenth-century designation, they called themselves 
"Delia Cruscans." Not content with their narrow 
Italian environments, they transported their methods 
to England, and the columns of " The World " and 
"The Oracle" teemed with their eccentricities and 
affectations. Prominent among the swarm of these 



io6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

sentimental verse-writers was Robert Merry, who, on 
his return from Florence, " immediately announced 
himself by a sonnet to Love." This was responded to 
by a congenial spirit signing herself "Anna Matilda," 
"The fever," says William Gifford, "now turned to a 
frenzy; Laura, Maria, Carlos, Orlando, Adelaide, and 
a thousand other nameless names, caught the infection, 
and from one end of the kingdom to the other, all was 
nonsense and Delia Crusca." "There was a specious 
brilliancy in these exotics," the same critic adds, 
"which dazzled the native grubs, who had scarce ever 
ventured beyond a sheep and a crook, and a ro.se-tree 
grove; with an ostentatious display of blue hills and 
crashing torrents and petrifying suns." 

The life of this school in England was short. In 
1794 Gifford published his "Mseviad," and in 1796 his 
"Baviad, " excoriating the whole clan, subjecting its 
adherents to such scorn that the very name of " Delia 
Crusca " became a by-word. The germs of this noxious 
growth, however, were wafted across the ocean, taking 
root in our own poetic soil only to bear the most perni- 
cious crop. Many of our verse writers were infected 
by its exhalations, and even long after it had been 
exterminated in England it still continued to flourish 
in America. As late as 1797 Robert Treat Paine, Jr., 
could thus attenuate a familiar sentiment of Gray: — 

" Heroes and bards, who nobler flights have won, 
Than Caesar's eagles, or the Mantuan swan. 
From eldest era share the common doom ; 
The sun of glory shines but on the tomb, 
Firm as the Mede the stern decree subdues, 
The brightest pageant of the proudest Muse. 
Man's noblest powers could ne'er the law revoke, 
Though Handel harmonized what Chatham spoke ; 
Though tuneful Morton's magic genius graced 
The Hyblean melody of Merry's taste." 



BELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES 107 

The poet furnishes this explanatory note to the last 
couplet : — 

" Robert Merry, esquire, the only pupil in the school of 
Collins, who possesses the genius of his master, is the author 
of those elegant poems in the British Album signed Delia 
Crusca of Paulina. . . . Mrs. Morton, of Dorchester, the 
reputed authoress of an heroic poem of much merit, entitled 
' Beacon Hill,' may, without hesitation, be announced the 
American Sappho." 

Mrs. Sarah Wentworth Morton (i 759-1 846), here re- 
ferred to, properly belongs to this period, though one 
of her volumes was published several years later. She 
frequently contributed to the " Massachusetts Maga- 
zine" while the Delia Cruscan epidemic was at its 
height. Among other things she wrote lines addressed 
to "the inimitable author of the poems under the sig- 
nature of Delia Crusca." Mrs. Morton owes most of 
whatever fame can be claimed for her to the frequent 
association of her name with that of Robert Treat 
Paine, Jr., though she is the only American female 
poet deemed worthy of mention by Dr. Samuel Miller, 
one of our earliest literary historians. She appears to 
have carried on, with Mr. Paine, in the magazine re- 
ferred to, a poetical correspondence, which is repub- 
lished in the volume of Mr. Paine's works. Many of 
Mr. Paine's poems are addressed to her as "Philenia," 
"The Laurelled Nymph," etc. 

Addressing Paine as "Menander," Mrs. Morton goes 
still farther. If she was to be known as the " Ameri- 
can Sappho," Paine is evidently the greatest literary 
phenomenon that the world has ever produced, combin- 
ing within himself the strength of Homer, the polish 
of Ovid, and the swiftness of Pindar. Stanza after 



io8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

stanza of honeyed insipidity is inflicted on the reader, 
regardless of the depressing effect. In a paroxysm of 
hysterical metaphor, Philenia refers to the solace his 
verse confers upon her bankrupt bosom. As in duty 
bound, Menander replies: — ■ 

" Thy ' bosom bankrupt ! ' — Ah, those sorrows cease 
Which taught us how to weep, and how admire ; 
The tear that falls to soothe thy wounded peace 
With rapture glistens o'er thy matchless lyre, 
Ind and Golconda, in one firm combined, 
Shall sooner bankrupt than Philenia's mind." 

But in spite of these confident assurances, the fame 
of the " American Sappho " has long since followed 
that of contemporary American Homers and Virgils 
to the limbo of hopeless oblivion. 

Robert Treat Paine, Jr. (1773-1811), born at Taun- 
ton, is the only poet of note produced by Harvard 
during this period. In spite of " Homeric Dwight " 
and "Virgilian Barlow," he narrowly missed placing 
himself at the head of the American poets of his 
day. His admirers claimed for him a place "on 
the same shelf with the Prince of English rhyme." 
Meeting with phenomenal success as a college poet, 
gifted with an extraordinary facility for writing rhymes, 
and with a vivid but utterly untrained fancy, Paine 
mistook the applause of admiring friends for the 
verdict of the literary world. Disowned by his father 
on account of a supposed mesalliance, and forced to 
depend upon his own efforts for support, he proved 
himself incapable of battling with the world, plunged 
into a career of dissipation, and died in his thirty- 
eighth year. 

Paine is supposed to have adopted Dryden as his 
model, but he did not hesitate to appropriate from 



BELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES 109 

Pope, Denham, and other popular writers. He was a 
reader, though hardly an appreciative student, of the 
best English poets, and was sadly tainted with the im- 
becilities of the Delia Cruscans. His works abound in 
false syntax, bad prosody, and errors of taste. 

The "College Exercises," which occupy so large a 
portion of his published volume, betray the unwhole- 
some flavor which usually distinguishes such unripe 
products. Even in his maturer efforts he lets his fer- 
vid fancy run loose, wrests words from their legitimate 
meanings, and seeks to gain piquancy by confounding 
oddness with originality. 

On the other hand, that Paine could write reason- 
ably well is evidenced by some passages in his " Prize 
Prologue," spoken at the opening of the first theatre 
in Boston in 1794. The drama had received a chilly 
welcome in New England. In 1749 a play had been 
acted at Boston, but popular sentiment was so scandal- 
ized at the appearance of the drama at all, that the next 
General Court passed a law imposing upon the owner 
of any building used for dramatic purposes a fine of 
twenty pounds for each performance, and a fine of five 
pounds each on every actor and spectator. In spite of 
this, while the British were in possession of Boston, 
in 1775, the first play both written and acted in Amer- 
ica, Burgoyne's "Blockade of Boston," was produced 
in that city. After the close of the Revolution, the 
growing liberal sentiment demanded a relaxation of 
these severe restrictions, but it was not until 1793 that 
the law in suppression of dramatic performances was 
repealed. It is a pleasing coincidence that the un- 
shackling of the drama was heralded by an effort of 
poetic genius which was a credit to our literature. 

The most popular of Paine's longer poems are "The 



no HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Invention of Letters" (1795) and "The Ruling Pas- 
sion " (1797). There is little in either of these to jus- 
tify the laudatory notices of the editors. His ode 
"Adams and Liberty" had an enormous circulation in 
this country and in England, and is still frequently 
published. It is suggestive of both Campbell and 
Thomson, but has a vigor and rhythm of its own. Its 
merits were no doubt greatly overestimated, but the 
American public of that time was not severely critical 
of its patriotic literature. 

Paine, in spite of his sensitiveness, had no occa- 
sion to complain of lack of appreciation. No previ- 
ous writer had received such substantial recognition. 
Probably for the first time in our history, literature met 
with extraordinary financial returns. "Adams and 
Liberty " yielded the author seven hundred and fifty 
dollars profit; "The Ruling Passion," twelve hundred 
dollars profit; and "The Invention of Letters," fifteen 
hundred dollars, "exclusive of expense," — prices, con- 
sidering the quality of the works, that must strike later 
verse-writers as something bewildering. He had no 
difficulty in obtaining a ready market for his wares, 
and if, to use his own words, he was 

" Doom'd, horrid fate, the living Muse to see 
Bound to the mouldering corpse of penury," 

it was his own dilettanteism, and not public indiffer- 
ence that was the responsible cause. The vices of 
Paine's style are so much more conspicuous than its 
virtues, that his influence, so far as it went, was any- 
thing but wholesome. The Anna Matilda spirit con- 
tinued to infect our minor singers. Sickishness was 
mistaken for tenderness. Silly and worn-out conceits 
still gushed from our literary fonts, American Phile- 



BELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES ill 

nias and Orlandos echoed the sweetened platitudes of 
the Lauras and Edwins across the water. 

Dr. Joseph B. Ladd was as sentimental as Mrs. Mor- 
ton in her most tearful moods. This unfortunate 
gentleman was born at Newport, Rhode Island, in 
1764. With a decided taste for literature, young Ladd 
fought bravely against heavy odds, and was on the point 
of being crowned with success when his career was 
cut short by early death. 

In his twentieth year, Ladd, upon the advice of 
General Nathaniel Greene, removed to South Carolina, 
where he rapidly gained distinction as a successful 
physician and writer. Before leaving the North he had 
become enamored of a young lady, the subject, under 
the name of "Amanda," of so many of his woe-begone 
effusions. He wrote under the name of " Arouet," and 
that he aroused admiration is shown by the poetic 
tributes uttered in his praise. Thus "Philomela'- 
writes to " Arouet : " — 

" Oh ! when the angelic choir all gather'd round 
The eternal throne, their silver harps shall sound, 
Shall not thy numbers wake the warbling wire ? 
And when at last this world dissolves in fire, 
Shall not some cherub snatch the favor'd lays 
And save thy sacred relics from the blaze ? 
Yes, 

Eternity shall bear the strains along, 
While listening saints admire, and seraphs learn the song." 

As if that were not enough, another verse-writer, after 
referring to Homer and his successors, declares: — 

" Again he lives, and what was Homer's now 
With common voice on Arouet we bestow ; 
The high sublime of the divine old bard 
Breathes in thy numbers, in thy song is heard ; 
No more we Homer's imitator see, 
For thou, sweet poet, thou thyself art he." 



112 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

If Dr. Ladd was indeed what was so confidently 
claimed for him, it is interesting to note the metamor- 
phosis undergone by the Homeric spirit in the course 
of ages. This modern Homer's favorite themes are 
swelling sighs and falling tears and mournful melan- 
choly. He complains of the tortures of his faithful 
heart caused by the absence of his Amanda, and again 
and again calls upon her to join sighs with his sighs, 
tears with his tears. 

Such was the weak and puling condition of the 
greater part of American verse when from Philadelphia 
came the first manly voice in denunciation of its shal- 
lowness. William Clifton (i 772-1 799) of that city 
was one of the few poets whose youthful productions 
betoken a sound, clear sense, and a thorough contempt 
for fashionable shams and nonsense. Clifton, like so 
many early Pennsylvania singers, notably Godfrey, 
Evans, and Linn, died young. His writings gave 
promise of unusual powers. He was thoroughly in 
earnest, and assailed current demagogism and preten- 
tious mediocrity with all the bitterness of an accom- 
plished satirist. His political strictures are no doubt 
overdrawn, but they furnish a refreshing relief to so 
much of the bombastic fustian that passed for patriotic 
poetry. Clifton, though of Quaker descent, was thor- 
oughly infused with the anti-Jacobin spirit, and wrote 
some stirring war lyrics. When Gifford's " Baviad 
and Maeviad " was published in Philadelphia in 1799, 
Clifton wrote for the book a poetic epistle to the author, 
in which he vigorously denounced the degeneracy of 
current literature. 

In the meantime Clifton's efforts were being ably 
seconded by another writer. Judge Royall Tyler (1756- 
1825), of Vermont, who is remembered as the author of 



DELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES 113 

the first American comedy put upon the stage. His 
" Contrast " was acted at the old John Street Theatre 
in New York, ^ in 1786. In it appears for the first 
time a character long since grown painfully familiar, 
the stage Yankee. Tyler was humorist enough to de- 
tect and detest the fashionable literary follies. Under 
the signature of " Delia Yankee " he published what 
he called " An Address to Delia Crusca, Humbly 
Attempted in the Sublime Style of that Fashionable 
Author." After holding up to ridicule the whole 
"school," especially in its American environment, the 
"Address" concludes: — 

" Rise, Delia Crusca, prince of bards sublime, 
And pour on us whole cataracts of rhyme. 
Son of the sun, arise, whose lightest rays 
All merge to tapers in thy ignite blaze, 
Like some colossus, stride the Atlantic o'er, 
A leg of genius place on either shore. 
Extend thy red, right arm to either world. 
Be the proud standard of thy style unfurl'd ; 
Proclaim thy sounding page from shore to shore, 
And swear that sense in verse shall be no more." 

Error dies hard. In spite of the denunciations of 
English and American satirists, Delia Cruscanism 
lingered in this country for years. Otherwise intelli- 
gent, sensible men of the world seemed to be smitten 
with temporary imbecility the moment they seized a 
pen to indite lines to their Celias and Cynthias and 
Clarissas. As late as 1814 Edwin C. Holland, a young 
attorney of Charleston, published his little volume of 
"Odes, Naval Songs, and other Occasional Poems." 
His writings for the press were under the signature of 
"Orlando," and were among the last of the Delia 
Cruscan echoes. His ode, "The Pillar of Glory," 
obtained a national popularity. 

8 



114 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

The perplexing imagery of this poem would seem to 
justify Judge Tyler's suggestion in the last line of the 
Delia Cruscan "Address," above quoted. Holland's 
ode, "Rise, Columbia," is suggestive of Paine, who 
seems to have inspired several of his productions. 

Mr. Holland received some kindly advice as well as 
criticism from Washington Irving, who thought he 
discerned signs of genius in the poems, in spite of the 
occurrence of "lucid vests veiling snowy breasts," and 
"satin sashes " and "sighs of rosy perfume," and 

" The sweetest of perfumes that, languishing, flies 
Like a kiss on the nectarous morning-tide air." 

Mr. Holland's early death at the age of thirty 
prevented his profiting by Irving's sensible sugges- 
tions. 

A twin evil of Delia Cruscanism presented itself in 
the Ossianic spirit of the time. Ladd wrote adulatory 
lines to the "bard of the mournful brow," as well as 
paraphrases of portions of McPherson's epics, one of 
which is made to appear as " translated from Fingal " 
by Ladd. Jonathan Mitchell Sewall (i 746-1 808), 
whose poetic fame rests on a single couplet, likewise 
wrote paraphrases of Ossian. Another Ossianic bard 
of this period was John Blair Linn (1777- 1804), a 
native of Pennsylvania, but afterward a resident of New 
York. While under his Ossianic spell he wrote a poem 
on the death of Washington, and later, the work by 
which he may be still remembered, "The Powers of 
Genius." This is an exceedingly dull poem in three 
parts. It passed through several editions in this coun- 
try and England. 

While on the subject of echoes and imitations, a 
word maybe added concerning translations. A con- 



BELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES 115 

spicuous writer of this class during the period under 
examination was John Parke, born in Delaware about 
the middle of -the eighteenth century. In 1786, at 
Philadelphia, appeared as the work of his hands a 
volume called "The Lyric Works of Horace, trans- 
lated into English verse." These efforts are par- 
aphrases rather than translations, adapted to current 
events and addressed to distinguished Americans of 
the time, the translator going so far as to substitute 
Martha Washington for the wife of Augustus. The 
opening lines of "Exegimonumentum," etc., are thus 
rendered : — 

" A monument I 've rais'd that shall surpass 
In firm duration one of solid brass ; 
Higher than Egypt's pyramid that stands 
With towering pride the work of kingly hands, 
Unmov'd it shall outstand the wasting rain, 
While feeble north winds threaten it in vain." 

But even this is not quite so shocking as Josias 
Lyndon Arnold's attempt (1797) in the manner of 
Sternhold and Hopkins, — 

" Of fame a mighty monument 
In time erect will I, 
Than brass more hard and durable, 
Or eke eternity. 

" Sublimer, — O far more sublime, 
Than pyramids full high, 
That stretch their tops, and all upon 
Fair Egypt's plain do lie. 

'' Not Boreas from out the north 
Rude rushing all so bold, 
Nor rain nor wind that round doth roar. 
Nor age that 's yet untold," etc. 

The actual amount of verse inspired by contemporary 
events during and subsequent to the Revolution was 



ii6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

something appalling. No attempt is made to give an 
exhaustive statement. However much these works 
may have been admired in their day, they are now 
virtually as obsolete as the lost writings of the an- 
cients. It is sufficient to refer to James Allen's 
"Lines on the Massacre" (Boston, 1772), "The Retro- 
spect," and "Bunker Hill," an epic happily never pub- 
lished; Hugh Henry Brackenridge's "The Battle of 
Bunker's Hill, a dramatic piece in five acts by a gen- 
tleman of Maryland" (Philadelphia, 1776); St. John 
Honeywood's posthumous poems (New York, 1801) 
relative to Washington's declination of a third term, 
Shays' rebellion, and the French Revolution; and a 
little later, Thomas Green Fessenden's alleged humor- 
ous and satirical poems of considerable popularity in 
their day, but totally unreadable now. To these might 
be added the names of "single poem poets," like 
Francis Hopkinson, author of "The Battle of the 
Kegs" (1777); his son, Joseph Hopkinson, author of 
"Hail Columbia" (1798); and Francis Scott Key, 
author of "The Star Spangled Banner" (1814), the 
last-named lyric being the only one inspired by the 
war of 18 12 that has survived. This list might be 
easily swelled, but it would be neither edifying nor 
entertaining. 

As may be inferred, the condition of American po- 
etry during the formative period of our history was 
anything but brilliant. For the most part it was dull, 
feeble, and imitative. Even among those who, by com- 
parison, are known as our greater poets there was a 
straining for effect, a preponderance of the intellectual 
over the imaginative, a profusion of epithets, of old and 
worn-out themes, of stale and trite conceits. With but 
few honorable exceptions, our singers seemed deter- 



BELLA CRUSCAN ECHOES 117 

mined to ignore the simplicities of nature and to strive 
after the wordy, the grandiose, and the bathetic. Cold, 
unimaginative,>and uncreative, their effusions, save as 
chronicles of current events, made no appeals to the 
hearts and sympathies of the people. These writers 
could compose turgid epics; high-stepping tragedies; 
moral, didactic, and perfunctory odes ; clumsy idyls and 
unnatural pastorals ; lyrics to which no lyre could be 
attuned; songs that could not be sung; and dramas 
devoid of dramatic action. So dominating was the 
artificial, the verbose, the declamatory method on 
the one hand, and the soft, sickly, sentimental style on 
the other, that reform seemed almost hopeless. Philip 
Freneau's vigorous verse was the "one ruddy drop of 
manly blood " that outweighed the surging sea of epics, 
dramas, monodies, rhyming paeans, Ossianic parodies, 
and Delia Cruscan inanities that broke upon our 
shores and threatened to ingulf everything that was 
true, simple, and genuine. 

American verse, impressive though it was in quan- 
tity, was in a condition of chaos when the successful 
issue of the second war with England established us 
among the great nations of the earth. Not until then 
was it possible for a literary class to rise and make its 
influence felt. With peace firmly secured as never 
before, our national dignity sustained, and our provin- 
cialism in great measure outgrown, we were in a posi- 
tion to devote attention to the higher walks of art and 
literature. The storms of the Revolution had hardly 
passed before we were threatened with gravest internal 
dissensions. Domestic and foreign policies, European 
complications, and at last the second war, were the all- 
engrossing topics. Under such conditions, higher lit- 
erature naturally could not flourish much more success- 



ii8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

fully than during our colonial period. But amid so 
much that was worthless may still be discerned a few 
germs of that poetic spirit that was to bear fruit in the 
efforts of those who have made memorable the golden 
era of American song. 



CHAPTER VII 

BIRTH OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT 

1813-1839 

THE aphorism that poetry is the first and art the 
last born of the Muses is not altogether appli- 
cable to America. It is true, we wrote verses a hun- 
dred years before we painted pictures. But the works 
of our native-born artists were recognized and appre- 
ciated abroad, while our singers had to remain content 
with a home audience. The masterpieces of our Wests, 
Copleys, Stuarts, and Trumbulls still find admirers, 
though the achievements of their literary compatriots 
have been allowed to slumber. In what, for the sake 
of convenience, we have termed our second literary 
period the artistic found a higher development than did 
the poetic spirit. As our highest mental activities were 
devoted to questions of war and statecraft, so our great- 
est aesthetic achievements were in the works of our 
artists. The truly creative painter is necessarily a poet, 
though he adopts a different medium from that of the 
verse writer. The higher creations of West and Copley 
certainly appeal to the imagination far more strongly 
than do mechanical epics like " The Columbiad " and 
"The Conquest of Canaan." Though our early artists 
naturally sought a more congenial atmosphere than the 
perturbed condition of their native land could offer, 
America is justly entitled to claim their fame. The 
Puritan spirit of colonial Boston was well nigh as fatal 



I20 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

to Copley's aspirations as the Quaker prejudices of 
Philadelphia had threatened to be to those of West. 
But both artists had been imbued with a true American 
spirit. When West broke away from conventional can- 
ons, and, to the admiration of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
proved that classicism was not indispensable to true art, 
he wrought an artistic revolution which, like the sub- 
ject of his painting, was thoroughly American. 

The effect of the works of these native artists in stim- 
ulating among us the love of the beautiful should not 
be ignored in a history of our literary development. 
Gradually the public mind was breaking away from its 
provincial environments and beginning to appreciate 
beauty for its own sake. 

At the threshold of our productive period appears 
a figure unique among his American contemporaries, 
the representative of the highest form of poetry and 
art that our country up to that time had produced. 
Washington Allston (i 779-1 843) was a native of South 
Carolina, sprung from one of its oldest and most distin- 
guished families, but his training and education were at 
the North. He attended school at Newport and grad- 
uated at Harvard in the class of 1800, delivering a 
poem at the Commencement. 

AUston's first publication was a little volume called 
" The Sylphs of the Seasons and Other Poems," pub- 
lished in London in 18 13, and later in the same year in 
Boston. His literary and artistic career extended for a 
period of thirty years from that date. 

During AUston's sojourns in Europe he enjoyed the 
friendship of some of the most eminent poets and 
artists of the day. 

Coleridge in his "Sibylline Leaves," published in 
1817, complimented the American poet-artist by insert- 



BIRTH OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT 121 

ing the latter's poem " America and Great Britain," 
with the note: "This poem written by an American 
gentleman, a > valued and dear friend, I communicate 
to the reader for its moral no less than its patriotic 
spirit." The author's copy of this book passed into 
the possession of Longfellow. In the handwriting of 
Mr. Coleridge is a marginal note to the poem, " by 
Washington Allston, a painter born to renew the fif- 
teenth century." The author of " The Ancient Mari- 
ner" declared to Thomas Campbell that Allston had 
" poetic and artistic genius unsurpassed by any man 
of his age." He was " the first genius produced by 
the western world." Southey pronounced some of All- 
ston's poems " among the first productions of modern 
times," and declared to William Collins, the artist, that 
whatever defects some of them might have, he had no 
hesitation in saying that they could not have proceeded 
from any but a poetic mind, " in which sentiment he 
was most cordially supported by Wordsworth, who was 
present at the time." Mr. Wilkie Collins, in his life of 
his father, says of Allston : " To a profound and reflec- 
tive intellect he united an almost feminine delicacy of 
taste and tenderness of heart, which gave a peculiar 
charm to his conversation, and an unusual eloquence to 
his opinions." Wordsworth, who regarded Allston as 
the first artist of the age, was attached to him " first 
as his own friend, and then as the affectionate friend 
of Coleridge." 

An American who at that time could so favorably 
impress himself upon some of the greatest minds of 
England must certainly have been gifted with more 
than usual powers. No American poet up to that time 
had evoked such encomiums from the mother country. 

Allston' s rank among our earlier artists is sufficiently 



122 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

established. His position among our poets is by no 
means so assured. His writings do not seem to have 
met with any degree of popularity in their time, and 
his poetical reputation is now chiefly a reminiscence. 
Yet few of his American contemporaries who enjoyed 
far greater reputation as poets were so well deserving 
of the name. His poetical writings were not numerous, 
but our literature could ill afford to lose them. His 
vivid fancy, trained imagination, and lofty conceptions, 
clothed in simple, elegant diction, are among the 
features that marked the new era of American song. 
His few sonnets and ballads are models of simplicity. 
But in none of his works has he excelled the brilliant 
poetic imagery displayed in his poem "The Angel and 
the Nightingale." The elevated purpose that inspires 
this poem is well preserved throughout by appropri- 
ate and picturesque language. It is one of the earli- 
est efforts in American verse to celebrate the power 
of abstract beauty, as well as the magical influence 
of song. Utterly unlike that of the representative 
"American bards" who preceded him was the genius 
of Washington Allston. His sensitive nature shrank 
with disgust from the inflated bragging style that 
disfigured so much of what up to his time had been 
called American poetry. The gentle artist who would 
refuse for gold to prostitute his talents to even a sus- 
picion of impurity, and who shrank with horror from 
depicting battle scenes, could not descend to anything 
low or sensational in his verse. 

Allston was great among his contemporaries by the 
strength of his individuality. This seems to have 
made itself felt wherever it penetrated, whether in the 
art galleries of Italy or amid the prosaic surroundings 
of Cambridgeport. The glimpses of the painter-poet 



BIRTH OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT 123 

in his youth and old age, as preserved in the sketches 
of Irving and Lowell respectively, confirm the remark- 
able impressipns made upon the great English poets. 
American literature, even more than American art, 
is indebted to Washington Allston for being among 
the first to raise it from the level of a dull mediocrity. 

Richard Henry Dana (1787-1879) was Allston's 
junior by eight years, but his literary career was 
almost strictly contemporaneous, though he survived 
his brother-in-law thirty-six years. Dana was a native 
of Cambridge, Mass., and spent most of the ninety-two 
years of his life in the neighborhood of Boston. On 
his mother's side he was a lineal descendant of Mrs. 
Bradstreet, our first female poet. While attending 
school at Newport he first met Allston, when was begun 
the remarkable friendship broken only by the latter's 
death. It was Dana who gave a cordial welcome to 
Allston's first volume, cheered, encouraged, and ap- 
plauded his later efforts, and wrote a feeling tribute to 
the memory of the artist-poet, to whom he was endeared 
by so many ties. 

Dana as a poet was more meditative but less crea- 
tive, more critical but less imaginative, than his kins- 
man; yet his poetical reputation was the greater of the 
two. Allston was great as an artist, Dana as a critic. 
Neither of them was absolutely great as a poet, though 
relatively, as compared with their predecessors, both 
wrote poetry of a high order. Dana was pre-eminently 
a man of letters, and though he wrote but little, his 
career is inseparably connected with the development 
of our national literature. He was educated for the 
law, but in 181 5 abandoned it for the more precarious 
profession of authorship. He was one of the earliest 
editors of the "North American Review," and by his 



124 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

admirably written essays did much to establish the 
high standard ever maintained by that periodical. In 
1 82 1 he attempted what at the time, from a financial 
point of view, was a most rash experiment, the publi- 
cation of the literary periodical called "The Idle 
Man." Bryant and Allston aided by their contribu- 
tions, and the work was issued by the New York pub- 
lishing house of Charles Wiley. It was not appreciated 
by the literary taste of the day, and was abandoned at 
the close of the first volume. 

Dana's first poem, "The Dying Raven," was pub- 
lished in 1825, and he wrote but little after 1833. His 
own critical taste was evidently so highly refined that 
he despaired of satisfying it. Because he could not 
realize his lofty ideal, he preferred to remain silent. 
He was one of the earliest Americans to lead in the 
revolt against the artificial style that had been worn so 
threadbare. Following the standard of Wordsworth 
as devoutly as his predecessors had that of Pope, he 
contributed his influence in the direction of truth and 
simplicity. Though he never descended to the prosaic 
dulness of his model's worst work, yet in the severity 
of his style he is sometimes crude and even harsh. 
His long poem "The Buccaneer" is a weird romance of 
crime and remorse, and probably the best of the many 
narrative poems inspired by the theme of the " Ancient 
Mariner." It is in this poem that the author's descrip- 
tive powers appear at their best. 

In depicting the strongest human feelings and 
emotions, such as avarice and cruelty, bravado and 
cowardice, defiance and remorse, the poem possesses a 
certain power that both fascinates and repels the reader. 
There are passages of remarkable beauty that are 
almost sublime, yet one finishes its perusal with the 



BIRTH OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT 125 

feeling that the poet's execution falls short of the high 
design. There is a lack of melody in spite of its elab- 
orate finish, as well as a lack of those essentials that 
appeal to the sympathies of the reader, and leave in- 
delible impressions upon his memory. It is neither 
a great nor a beautiful poem. At the time of its ap- 
pearance, however, the great Scotch critic was perhaps 
correct in declaring, " We pronounce it by far the most 
powerful and original of American poetic compositions. " 
Few writers have excelled Dana in his poetic inter- 
pretation of nature, yet through all his poems there is 
a spirit of subdued melancholy that becomes almost 
tedious, — the same quality that long since drove his 
powerful prose tales to oblivion. His little poem on 
the " Beach Bird " is pretty enough, but one has only to 
contrast its sorrowful and gloomy spirit with the gentle 
optimism of a companion poet's lines "To a Water 
Fowl," to understand why Dana's poem is almost for- 
gotten, while that of Bryant has become a household 
classic. Dana was never a popular poet. The changes 
of time were distressing to him. From his retirement 
he could see the world sweeping past him, paying little 
heed to his utterances, while he lacked the mental force 
to put himself in accord with his age. His later life, 
perhaps embittered by disappointment, seems to have 
been tainted with the common complaint of "neg- 
lected genius." In 1853 he wrote to a friend: "I 
cannot feel in sympathy with what is distinctively 
American in us. All I can say is, I wish my country 
were better than it is — less blustering, boastful, grasp- 
ing, sharp, vulgarly ostentatious, less absorbed in things 
physical, less dead of sense to our finer natures. I 'm 
patriot enough for that, thank God ! but there my 
patriotism ends." And in 1854 he wrote: "My heart 



126 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

has always yearned for old England — less, to be sure, 
after the reform bill and the death of Coleridge; but 
still the feeling is strong. I do wish well to my country, 
and trust that the Lord will lift it up at last. But as 
it is now, I cannot find in it that which I most long 
for." 1 Yet at the time that Mr. Dana was uttering his 
complaint, Irving and Hawthorne, Emerson and Long- 
fellow, whose dispositions were fully as sensitive and 
refined as his own, had succeeded in creating an 
appreciative audience for themselves, even under the 
deplorable conditions that confronted the author of 
"The Buccaneer." 

While the artistic Allston and the meditative Dana 
were writing their graceful pieces for a limited audi- 
ence, Charles Sprague (1791-1875), of Boston, though 
not gifted with the poetic imagination of either, was 
far more successful in reaching the popular heart. 
Many of his pieces were occasional odes, songs, and 
even prize prologues. His ode written for a triennial 
celebration of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics 
Association in 1818 was one of the earliest of a series 
of successful poems, which he continued to manufacture 
for special occasions for the next dozen years. It was 
before the same association, six years later, that he de- 
livered his poem on "Art," which was greatly admired 
in its day. His "Shakespeare Ode," delivered at the 
Boston Theatre in 1823, at the exhibition of a pageant 
in honor of Shakespeare, betokens a wondrous devel- 
opment of taste in a generation succeeding the one that 
was horrified at anything of a dramatic nature. At the 
time of its delivery only a score of years had elapsed 
since the first New England reprint of Shakespeare had 
been published. 

1 Wilson's " Bryant and his Friends," p. 214. 



BIRTH OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT 127 

Sprague's longest poem, " Curiosity," was delivered 
before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard in 1823. 
It is difficult to understand how such a production could 
obtain such popularity. It is of exemplary form, fin- 
ished versification, and approved rhetoric, but mechan- 
ical in design and treatment, and, on the whole, rather 
tedious. It was one of the successful poems of the day, 
was largely read and quoted in this country, and grossly 
plagiarized in England. 

One of the most conspicuous figures in our literary his- 
tory was John Pierpont, who was born at Litchfield, Con- 
necticut, in 1785, and died in Medford, Massachusetts, 
in 1866. As early as 1812 he delivered a pessimistic 
poem, "The Portrait," before the Washington Benevo- 
lent Society of Newburyport. In i8i6he published at 
Baltimore his long poem "The Airs of Palestine," 
which at once placed him among the foremost of Amer- 
ican poets. It was intended, as the author explains, 
that its recitation " should form a part of the perform- 
ance of an evening concert of sacred music for the 
benefit of the poor. It was indeed a volunteer in the 
cause, but its aid was coldly received, or rather coldly 
declined wherever it made its trembling advances; and 
it was thus stung into the resolution of appearing before 
the public; not indeed to solicit the succor of charity 
for others but the rites of hospitality for itself." The 
author's persistency was rewarded in the popular favor 
extended to the little volume, which passed through 
several editions in this country and England. The 
poem itself is simply a meditation upon the influence 
of music as applied to Jewish history and, to a limited 
extent, to noted occurrences of all times. Our litera- 
ture in 1 8 16 had not become emancipated from its 
thraldom to Pope, whose influence is manifest through- 



128 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

out the finished versification of the whole poem. The 
growing spirit of Americanism is visible in several of 
the melodious passages, especially in the tribute to 
Chateaubriand, the "poetic pilgrim of the West." 

Pierpont was the most thoroughly national of all the 
poets of this period thus far considered. His patriotic 
lyrics are among the best and most spirited in our 
literature. His hymns and odes for anniversary and 
other celebrations are all in clear, vigorous, Saxon 
English. "The Fugitive Slave's Apostrophe to the 
North Star," "The Gag," and "The Tocsin" are among 
the best of our anti-slavery lyrics. " A Word from a 
Petitioner " is memorable as containing one of our 
"familiar quotations." He has given at least one 
beautiful lyric, which, as a creation of pure fancy as 
distinguished from imagination, is unsurpassed in 
American poetry. His "Passing Away," in its fanci- 
ful conception and melodious diction, suggests what 
its author was capable of doing in the direction of pure 
literature. 

All four of the poets to whom this chapter has been 
devoted properly belonged to Massachusetts. One of 
them, it is true, was a native of South Carolina and 
another of Connecticut, but the life-work of each was 
performed while residing in the first-named State. 
Their writings have been selected as among the best 
representatives of the highest forms of literature pro- 
duced in New England during the thirty years preced- 
ing 1840. Among our writers of that epoch who had 
established reputations as poets, but one has stood the 
crucial test of time, and is still read and admired. As 
that poet's literary career, however, extended through 
a succeeding generation, a consideration of his writings 
is deferred to a later period. 



BIRTH OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT 129 

We have happily reached that stage in our literary 
development when it is no longer necessary to chron- 
icle the name'of every versifier. American verse has 
gradually assumed a life and spirit of its own. The 
era is one of transition. The influence of Pope has 
yielded to that of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and this 
transformation may be witnessed by a comparison of the 
earlier and later effusions of the writers that have just 
passed under review. But at best these writers were 
mostly imitative. They reflected honor and credit, 
indeed, upon their nation's literature, while failing in 
those higher flights of song attainable only by the 
great. It is natural, therefore, that their works should 
perish with them. But each has left at least one 
poem worthy of place among our best. Allston's 
"Angel and the Nightingale," Dana's "Buccaneer," 
Sprague's "Shakespeare Ode," and Pierpont's "Pass- 
ing Away " are notable, each betokening an artistic, 
creative spirit strangely unfamiliar to readers of earlier 
American verse. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE ''KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL'' 

1807-1840 

THE gloomy spirit of early Puritanism survived in 
the tender melancholy of Dana, Pierpont, and 
other New England singers. Very different in tone 
and temper was that group of verse writers who ap- 
peared on Manhattan Island, and by pointed satire, if 
not poetic merit, soon forced an audience for them- 
selves, had New York society by the ears, and in a 
number of ways made themselves conspicuous and noto- 
rious, if not famous and respected. There was nothing 
suggestive of neglected genius in their careers. They 
had no reason to complain of public indifference, for 
every one was talking about them, and when they tired 
of satirizing the public they satirized each other. 
People might ignore "The Sylphs of the Seasons," 
show a cold indifference to "The Buccaneer" and 
"The Airs of Palestine," and even yawn over the pol- 
ished mediocrity of "Curiosity," but the "Salma- 
gundi " and the " Croaker " Papers were certain to find 
readers and provoke comment. 

The " Salmagundi Papers " appeared in 1807 and were 
abandoned at the end of a year, though an effort was 
made to revive them in 18 19. The new series lacked 
the freshness and vivacity of the original and proved a 
failure. The first series was written chiefly by Wash- 
ington Irving and James Kirke Paulding, though the 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 131 

poetical contributions are said to have been the exclu- 
sive work of William Irving (i 766-1 821), elder brother 
of Washington Irving, and brother-in-law of Paulding. 
There is nothing whatever of lasting value in these 
metrical attempts at mingled mirth and sentiment, 
though they enjoyed a sort of prestige by association 
with successful prose writings. Nothing like " Sal- 
magundi " had appeared in American literature. Dr. 
Francis, one of the " Old Guard " of the New York 
literature, writes of it: — 

"Ere a dozen numbers of ' Salmagundi ' were issued, quite a 
commotion arose among the literati and the public concerning 
the work and its authors. The humble drudges about town, 
who had lived obscurely, yet fancied themselves members of 
the literary world by their revision of Dilworth and the editors 
of catechisms with explanatory notes, were astounded at the 
great eclat which elegant letters secured, and which was 
denied to their uninventive products ; while fashionable co- 
teries everywhere were prodigal of conjectures from what mine 
the gold dust was brought to light for the commonwealth of 
letters. ' Salmagundi ' was found at almost every tea table. 
The sale announced the fact that literary property was both 
vendible and profitable." ■^ 

The success of these papers stimulated more serious 
work. James Kirke Paulding (i 778-1 860), not satis- 
fied with his mastery of light satire, determined to 
transmit his name to future ages as the author of a 
great American epic. In 18 18 appeared his heroic 
poem "The Backwoodsman," an attempt to portray 
American incidents in a thoroughly American setting. 
As was to be expected, the set purpose of the author to 
be really and truly national is so obvious that it destroys 

1 Quoted in introduction to Duyckinck's edition of "Salmagundi," 
i860. 



132 HISTORY, OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the spontaneity essential to poetry. He ignored the 
simple truth that originality of subject by no means 
implied originality of thought or treatment. By the 
singular irony of fate his labored poetical effort has 
passed entirely from men's minds, while the only speci- 
men of his verse that has survived in popular favor is 
the alliterative nonsense concerning Peter Piper and 
his peck of pickled peppers, the lines being from 
Paulding's first novel, "Koningsmarke," published in 
1823. 

The year 1819, in which Paulding made his unsuc- 
cessful effort to revive the "Salmagundi Papers," wit- 
nessed the appearance of a remarkable series of satirical 
writings published as the work of "The Croakers." 
Though of transient and local interest, they displayed 
a poetic and critical genius lacking in the " Salmagundi 
Papers." For months the columns of the New York 
" Evening Post " were graced by these sprightly papers, 
which still possess a certain historic interest as reflect- 
ing phases of metropolitan society and politics of the 
day. The authors were true poets, though at the time 
they were hardly known to the public. It was early in 
1 8 19, when Joseph Rodman Drake and Fitz Greene 
Halleck were in the office of Dr. Langstaff in New 
York, that Drake, on the spur of the moment, jotted 
down his burlesque poem "To Ennui," upon which 
Halleck at once placed the seal of his approval. 
The effort so commended itself to the young poets that, 
though with some trepidation, they sent it to the 
" Evening Post " for publication. The series proved a 
success from the start, and were the literary hit of the 
day in America, inspiring countless imitations, and 
setting the reading world of New York ablaze. The 
writers were extolled, abused, and threatened " as much. 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 133 

I believe I can say with truth," says Halleck, "as any 
writers since the days of Junius." Refined satire had 
at that time aH the attractions of novelty for American 
readers. One of these little poems whose pleasantry 
may be appreciated to-day is the " Ode to Simeon 
DeWitt, Esq." Mr. DeWitt was the surveyor-general 
of the State, to whose execrable taste is attributed the 
system of classic nomenclature that disfigures so much 
of western New York. Pedantry never offered a more 
shining mark for the shafts of ridicule. 

But the " Croaker Papers " were not all satirical. 
Drake's "American Flag," with its concluding qua- 
train by Halleck, was written in May, 18 19, and 
published as other "Croaker Papers" in the "Post." 
This was the noblest patriotic American poem that had 
yet appeared. It was so far superior to the previous 
stilted efforts of our patriotic " bards " as in itself to 
mark an epoch in one branch of our national verse. 

Joseph Rodman Drake (i 795-1 820) was the first 
native poet of New York City to achieve permanent 
fame. He began his rhymes when but five years old, 
and even his boyish sports were inspired by Don 
Quixote and Ossian. At fourteen he wrote "The 
Mocking Bird," showing in its musical lines a rare 
degree of precocity. 

Drake was a thorough believer in his native land. 
He desired to see her streams and hills as celebrated 
in song and story as the classic regions of Europe. It 
was in this spirit that " The Culprit Fay " was written. 
This, the longest of Drake's poems, was written in 
1816, though not published until several years later. 
It was as great an advance upon American narrative 
poetry as his " American Flag " was upon our patriotic 
verse. It showed both originality and spontaneity. 



134 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Composed in three days, and written to sustain the 
theory that American streams are as well adapted to the 
uses of poetry as those of the old world, the work shows 
unmistakable signs of hasty composition. Whatever 
defects hypercriticisra may discern, this poem still 
retains its place in the hearts of the people, and is ir- 
revocably associated with the romance of the Hudson 
River. As a work of true poetic fancy rather than of 
profound imagination, "The Culprit Fay" continues to 
be the most widely read of any long American poem 
produced up to that time. The same strength of fancy 
that idealizes the Hudson appears in many of Drake's 
shorter poems, notably in his four-line description of 
Niagara Falls, one of the few attempts in literature 
worthy of the subject. 

The poet died in 1820, at the age of twenty-five, hav- 
ing given but an earnest of his extraordinary powers. 

Fitz Greene Halleck (1790-1867), Drake's associate, 
was for years probably the most popular American poet. 
His clear, lucid style, easy diction and good-natured 
raillery, appealed at once to the public sentiment, and 
gave him a temporary prestige in literary circles hardly 
equalled in our history. His odes, lyrics, and satires 
were the most polished of their kind, written in a 
strain at once to catch the popular fancy. Even those 
of a transient character, with allusions now for the 
most part of little interest, show the same graceful, 
poetic spirit that enlivens the more important works. 
He had that excellent command of language that 
enabled him to express his meaning in the most felici- 
tous terms, without the slightest apparent effort. It 
is certainly no rash prediction to assert that his more 
familiar lyrics, though few in number, will last as long 
as any short poems in our literature. 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 135 

Halleck's long poem " Fanny " is composed in a light, 
fanciful strain, satirizing the follies of New York's 
vulgar rich. Jt makes no pretensions to profundity or 
originality. The style is plainly suggestive of Beppo 
and Don Juan, though there is enough of Halleck's 
own to relieve it from any charge of imitation. Imme- 
diately upon its appearance in 18 19 it was a pronounced 
success, so far as popularity may be considered a meas- 
ure of literary success. The result was so gratifying 
to the author that two years later he published a new 
and enlarged edition, which, in spite of much that is 
ephemeral in the work, materially increased his repu- 
tation both at home and abroad. The thread of the 
narrative, suggested by the rise and failure of a New 
York merchant, is drawn out far beyond its legitimate 
length by local allusions and satirical flings at some of 
the literary and political notabilities of the time. 

" For me 
I rhyme not for posterity," 

he says, an assertion which, so far as the author's 
longer poems are concerned, has proved true. Pos- 
terity takes little interest in either "Fanny" or "The 
Recorder," however great may have been the admira- 
tion elicited by them at the time of their appearance. 
But up to his time no American writer had approached 
his level in satiric verse, for though Halleck .lived till 
1867, his literary career may be considered as included 
within the single decade ending with 1828. It was 
during that period that his best work was done. Sub- 
sequent to that time he wrote nothing worthy of his 
genius. The monody on "Drake," "Burns," "Marco 
Bozzaris," and "Red Jacket," all written in the poets' 
early manhood, show not the fleeting spirit of the time, 



136 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

but true inspiration. Their author's talents were 
greatly overrated by his earlier contemporaries. He 
was not an American Horace, nor was he a rival of 
Byron or Campbell, as some of his injudicious admirers 
would have us believe. But he wrote fine lyrics, and 
his writings afforded genuine pleasure to two genera- 
tions of readers. He was the first American poet to 
receive distinguished honors after death. A monument 
was erected to his memory at his birthplace, Guil- 
ford, Conn., and it was highly appropriate that his 
bronze statue should grace New York's most beautiful 
park. He was, in spite of his New England birth, the 
typical poet of the metropolis. He sang of her virtues 
and her vices, her commerce and her politics, and it 
was but natural that New York should feel a local 
pride in his fame. 

While " The Croakers " were amusing New York, 
another literary partnership was struggling for recog- 
nition. James W. Eastburn (1797-1819) and Robert 
C. Sands (1799-1832) were fellow-students at Colum- 
bia, fellow-editors of "The Moralist" and afterward of 
" Academic Recreations," and joint authors of " Yamoy- 
den, A Poem." The latter was begun in 18 17, and 
nearly finished the next year. After Eastburn' s death, 
the work was revised and finished by Sands, and pub- 
lished in 1820. As the production of two youths, it 
shows crudeness and imperfect taste. The influence 
of Scott was apparent, and the choice of subject not a 
happy one. " Yamoyden " met with a qualified success 
in this country, received some attention abroad, and 
was grossly plagiarized in England. The " Proem " by 
Sands, in which he mourns the death of his associate, 
is better than anything in the poem itself. 

This was the period of illustrated "annuals," Amer- 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 137 

ica following in the wake of England and France in 
their adoption of the example set in the German 
"annalen." Many of the earlier productions of our 
greatest poets may be found in the "Amaranths," 
"Tokens," and other suggestively named collections. 
" Elam Bliss, a worthy member of the trade, mentioned 
a thing of the kind to Sands," says the latter's biog- 
rapher, " who, after consulting with Verplanck and 
Bryant, hit upon the scheme of a yearly publication 
which should combine the characteristics of an annual 
with those of a miscellany from the pens of two or 
three authors writing in conjunction. 

The joint labors of American artists and authors in 
1827 resulted in the appearance of "The Talisman" 
for 1828. The publication was continued for three 
successive years, giving much of the best American 
literature during that period.^ It was nominally under 
the editorship of a "Mr. Francis Herbert," whose only 
existence was in the fertile brains of the contributors. 

It was as a humorist that Sands' genius was 
most conspicuous, though he would doubtless have re- 
sented the insinuation if he had been warned that his 
more trivial pleasantries would outlive his ambitious 
" Yamoyden " and " Papantzin. " His essay on " Hobo- 
ken " is certainly much more genuine than his graver 
efforts. His literary jokes were of a kind not now so 
much in vogue. He delighted in mystifying his readers 
with extracts from a "forth-coming novel," a produc- 
tion as mythical as the accredited editor of " The Talis- 
man. " "One of these pranks," says his biographer, 

1 Out of this casual association of artists and literary men the " Sketch 
Club" arose. Its meetings were continued until it was merged in what 
is now " The Century Club," one of the largest and most prosperous 
clubs of the city. — Godwin's Life of Bryant, I. 236. 



138 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

" occurred in relation to the Grecian crown of victory, 
during the excitement in favor of Greek liberty, when, 
after several ingenious young men, fresh from their 
college studies, had exhausted all the learning they 
could procure, either from their own acquaintance with 
antiquity or at second hand from Lempriere, Potter, 
Bartholemi, or the more erudite Paschalis de Corona, 
Sands ended the controversy by an essay filled with 
excellent learning, that rested mainly on a passage of 
Pausanias, quoted in the original Greek, but for which 
it is vain to look in any edition of that author." At 
another time he and his associate caused considerable 
controversy in an article relative to Pope Alexander 
VI. and Caesar Borgia, and sent their disputant on "a 
fool's errand " to investigate a Latin work that never 
existed. Bryant, writing to Verplanck about this 
time, says : " You have doubtless seen the learned 
epistle of John Smith to the editors of the * Even- 
ing Post. ' The poems were concocted, as well as the 
greater part of the translations, by Sands and myself; 
some by Anderson, Paine, and Da Ponte. We look 
upon it here as a very learned jete. d' esprit.'^ "The 
joke," says Godwin, "consisted in taking a familiar 
couplet and running it through all the languages, an- 
cient and modern, inclusive of several Indian dialects. 
These quips and quirks were sometimes flung into the 
camps of political adversaries, where they exploded like 
fire-crackers, and produced a great deal of spluttering 
and noise, but not much damage."^ 

Sands' promising career was cut short when he was but 
thirty-three years old. The year 1832 was remarkable 
for its death list. This included such names as Goethe, 
Spurzheim, Champollion, Bentham, Cuvier, Scott, 

' 1 Life of Bryant, I. 239. 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 139 

Crabbe, Adam Clarke, Charles Carroll, and the Duke 
of Reichstadt. It was in allusion to this that Sands 
wrote one of his best-known poems. A week later, he 
had just begun writing for the " Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine " a poem beginning with the significant words, — • 

" Oh, think not my spirit among you abides," 

when the pencil slipped from his hands forever. His 
muscles refused to obey his will, and he sank into a 
lethargy from which he never revived. Another hon- 
ored name was added to "The Dead of 1832." 

In the year 1833 was published in Philadelphia a 
thin volume of poems dedicated to Edward Bulwer 
Lytton, as one " whose influence as an author is unde- 
niably stronger, and more diffusive among the people 
of America, than that of almost any modern mind." 
This fulsome statement, in view of the influence of 
Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron, was of course absurd, 
but may be pardoned when we recall the fact that 
Bulwer himself had already referred to the author of the 
little book as a gentleman " who has an enviable genius, 
to be excited in a new and unexhausted country, and a 
glorious career before him, where, in manners, scenery, 
and morals, hitherto undescribed and unexhausted, 
he can find wells where he himself may be the first to 
drink." The recipient of this pleasant notice was 
Willis Gaylord Clark, at one time editor of "The 
Knickerbocker Magazine." Clark was a native of 
Onondaga County, New York, and early gave evidence 
of strong poetic taste. He was devoted to literature, 
followed journalism in New York City, Columbia, South 
Carolina, and Philadelphia, and was a frequent contrib- 
utor to the English and American periodicals, more par- 
ticularly to the " Knickerbocker," in which many of his 



I40 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

best productions appeared. Unhappily the "glorious 
career" which Bulwer predicted for him was cut short 
by death at the age of thirty-one. Nor was he the first 
to drink from the wells which he found in the unex- 
hausted American soil. The themes of his verse are 
seldom original, dealing mostly with such subjects as 
the seasons of the year, memory, love, death, and 
the past. Like all the writings of the Knickerbocker 
school, his works are characterized by an easy grace, 
a tender pathos, and pleasing melody. He was of an 
earnest, religious temperament, and keenly alive to the 
beauties of nature. As Irving was his model in prose, 
Bryant was his model in verse, though Clark could 
hardly claim rivalry with either. His " Ollapodiana 
Papers," a series of fanciful sketches or essays con- 
tributed to the "Knickerbocker," are replete with 
humor, wisdom, tenderness, and good sense, though 
inclined to the sentimental. 

The term "school," in relation to literature, applies 
strictly only to those writers of a similar cast of 
thought or method of expression. In its true and 
limited sense, therefore, the term " Knickerbocker 
school " should include only those writers who, like 
Paulding, Sands, Clark, and possibly Halleck, drew 
their chief inspiration from the prose of Washington 
Irving, the acknowledged leader. By custom, the 
term has been extended to all those New York writers 
who, in the first four decades of the nineteenth 
century, were identified with the literature of the 
metropolis. 

Nothing better illustrates the " mutability of litera- 
ture " than the obscurity which now veils so many 
names in the Knickerbocker group, at one time con- 
sidered among the brightest. As late as 1841, Mr. 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 141 

Griswold's exhaustive compilation of American poetry 
included about as many extracts from the two now 
well-nigh forg'otten writers, Hoffman and Benjamin, as 
from those of Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, 
Poe, Emerson, and Lowell combined; and an English 
journal about the same time placed Hoffman in the 
front rank, declaring "his plume waved above the 
heads of all the literary men of America a cubit clear. " 
Yet it is safe to say that of all the songs and lyrics of 
Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884), only three are 
now remembered: "Sparkling and Bright," "Room, 
Boys, Room," and "At Monterey," the last being by 
far his best, and deservedly ranking among our finest 
martial lyrics. Hoffman was a genuine Knickerbocker, 
his family in New York dating back to the time of 
Peter Stuyvesant. He was a student, but not a gradu- 
ate, of Columbia, and years after his college life re- 
ceived, at the same time with Halleck and Bryant, the 
honorary degree of A.M. from that institution. 

The only American who could contest Hoffman's 
rank as a song writer was George P. Morris (1802- 
1864). In conjunction with Samuel Wood worth, Mor- 
ris founded the " New York Mirror " in 1823, which for 
a quarter of a century continued to publish much of the 
most popular New York literature, and which was 
succeeded by the "Home Journal," for many years 
a leading literary and society journal of the metrop- 
olis. His drama "Briar Cliff," written in 1825, 
was a financial, if not a literary, success. He wrote 
also an opera, "The Maid of Saxony," which was pro- 
duced for fourteen nights at the Park Theatre, — an 
unusual dramatic success for an American production, 
though it seems to have passed out of the public mind 
almost simultaneously with its disappearance from 



142 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the stage. His best-known poem, "Woodman, Spare 
that Tree," written in 1837, is said to have been 
translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, 
Dutch, Latin and Greek. It is a fair exponent of its 
author's sentimentalism, which finds melodious expres- 
sion in his other quondam popular productions : " My 
Mother's Bible," "Jennie Marsh of Cherry Valley," 
"Near the Lake where droops the Willow," and simi- 
lar effusions. His early associate in the "Mirror," 
Samuel Woodworth (i 785-1 842), was also a prolific 
writer, though only a single lyric has survived out of 
his several volumes of prose and verse. The universal 
popularity of "The Old Oaken Bucket," like that of 
"Woodman, Spare that Tree," is one of those myste- 
ries common in the history of literature. There is 
little of poetic merit in either. It was a sentimental 
era, which revelled in Gems, Albums, Amaranthine 
Wreaths, Tokens, Keepsakes, and Friendship's Offer- 
ings. "The Old Oaken Bucket " was an illustration of 
the tendency which is apt to infuse recollections of 
youthful life on the farm with a spirit more sentimental 
than accurate. 

Park Benjamin was also a prolific short-poem writer. 
He was particularly successful in his sonnets, some of 
which show the true spirit. Of New England birth, 
as were the majority of the " Knickerbocker " authors, 
he exhibited a graceful turn for the gentle humor that 
characterized these writers. But all the minor New 
York singers seemed at one time in danger of being 
eclipsed by the vagaries of McDonald Clarke (1798- 
1842), a conspicuous figure in New York social and 
literary life. Between 1820 and 1841 he published 
several volumes of mingled sense and nonsense, and 
was known as "the mad poet." He carried the person- 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 143 

alities of his society verse to such disagreeable extremes 
as to draw about his ears the wrath of the Manhattan 
belles. He was scouted, despised, and dreaded. Clarke 
was the author of the lines — 

" Now twilight lets her curtain down, 
And pins it with a single star," 

once admired for their supposed beauty. 

Without attempting to give an exhaustive list of the 
New York writers of this period, it is sufficient to 
recall the names of a few now almost forgotten, but 
prominent in their day and generation. Among these 
may be mentioned James G. Brooks (1801-1841), once 
considered a "leading American poet," who, with his 
wife, published in 1829 "The Rivals of Este and 
other Poems," William Leggett (1802-1839), journalist, 
C. P. Clinch ( 1 797-1 880), critic, and H. T. Tucker- 
man (1813-1871), essayist, each of whom made some 
pretensions to verse writing; I. S. Clason (1798-1834), 
who sought to imitate the life and writings of Byron, 
though destitute of a spark of his genius, author of two 
supplementary cantos of Don Juan (1826) and a volume 
of poems, " Horace in New York " (1827), and who died 
a miserable death in London; and Laughton Osborn 
(1809- 1 878),. who graduated at Columbia in 1827, and 
wrote much but accomplished little. 

In the field of satire, light pleasantry, and playful 
sentiment, these New York writers excelled. In sus- 
tained efforts of the heroic and tragic they failed dis- 
mally. Paulding's "Backwoodsman," Sands' "Papant- 
zin" and "Yamoyden," and Brooks' "Rivals of Este" 
produced no important effect, Willis, in his " Melanie " 
and "Lord Ivon and his Daughter," fared little better. 
Yet Poe was probably right when he said Willis nar- 



144 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

rowly missed placing himself at the head of American 
poets. 

Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), while still at 
college, had made for himself a name as a poet, and had 
a national reputation years before Longfellow's first 
volume of verse was published. In his earlier career 
he was a frequent contributor to the sentimental 
"Annuals" of the period. In 1829, the year in which 
his first volume of poems appeared, he established at 
Boston "The American Monthly Magazine," which in 
September, 1831, was merged in "The New York 
Mirror." From that date until his death, thirty-six 
years later, Willis may be considered a New Yorker. 
The height of his fame was during the dozen years after 
he had settled in New York. In 1831 Halleck's liter- 
ary career was virtually ended. Bryant's writings 
were in too exalted a strain to win immediate popular 
applause, and others who have since been regarded as 
our representative poets were then almost entirely un- 
known. The dash and glitter of Willis's writings 
took the popular fancy at once, and at an early age he 
was recognized as one of our " cleverest " poets. 

Willis made little pretence in his poetry to admire 
the beauties of nature. Metropolitan society was far 
more agreeable to him than the voices of the woods, 
and he frankly acknowledged his preferences. He 
enjoyed the companionship of the cultured and refined, 
and disdained not the luxuries of life. His reception 
in Europe was something remarkable, and his country- 
men have no sound reason to criticise his conduct abroad 
as a representative American man of the world. That 
he was something more than a mere dandy, J. G. Lock- 
hart and Captain Marryat found to their cost when 
they attempted to measure swords with him. In that 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 145 

not edifying controversy Willis certainly showed him- 
self the best gentleman of the three. Lockhart's 
vulgar tirade in the " Quarterly " against Willis and 
ail Americans, and Marryat's ill-expressed abuse in the 
" Metropolitan " are interesting chiefly as exhibiting the 
narrow prejudice of the Tory press at the time against 
anything emanating from this country. Marryat's 
blustering efforts to engage the young American in a 
duel only resulted in the Englishman's second conced- 
ing the error of his principal. 

The verse of Willis, like his prose, provoked torrents 
of criticism, with the usual result. The more he was 
criticised, the more he was read, and what was not less 
to the purpose, the higher the price paid him for his 
manuscript. Satirists ridiculed his foppery, but he 
outlived the satirists. No American writer was more 
eagerly sought by the editors or more eagerly read by 
the public. His unfortunate choice of subjects, his 
diffusiveness, his flippancy, and what some regarded as 
his snobbishness, were matters with which the public 
concerned itself but little. He wrote to please, and 
succeeded. He struck a comparatively new vein in 
American poetry, and worked it to the utmost advan- 
tage. Whatever his faults, hypocrisy was not one of 
them. He detested the hard, barren realism of rural 
life, and refused to join the general chorus that was 
forever chanting the beauties of rustic simplicity. 

" Your love in a cottage is hungry, 

Your vine is a nest for flies — ■ 
Your milkmaid shocks the Graces, 

And simplicity talks of pies ! 
You lie down to your shady slumber 

And wake with a bug in your ear, 
And your damsel that walks in the morning 

Is shod like a mountaineer. 



146 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

" True love is at home on a carpet, 

And mightily likes his ease — 
And true love has an eye for a dinner, 

And starves beneath shady trees. 
His wing is the fan of a lady, 

His foot 's an invisible thing 
And his arrow is tipped with a jewel. 

And shot from a silver string." 

All of which, if open to criticism as poetry, is still 
in refreshing contrast to the commonplace sentimental- 
ism of "The Old Oaken Bucket," "Woodman, Spare 
that Tree " and " Near the Lake where droops the 
Willow." 

In his contempt for the usual stock in trade of the 
minor American poets, however, Willis went to an 
extreme equally reprehensible, as evidenced by such 
vacuities as "To a Stolen Ring," "Sunrise Thoughts 
at the Close of a Ball," "An Apology for Avoiding, 
after a Long Separation, a Woman once Loved," "To 
the Lady in the Chemisette with Black Buttons," "The 
Lady in the White Dress whom I helped into the 
Omnibus," etc., etc., and he never outgrew the influ- 
ence imbibed from the "Annual" literature of his 
youth. One of the last books that he published was a 
memento entitled "Thought Blossom." 

The youthful literary triumphs of Willis were phe- 
nomenal. But they proved disastrous to his ultimate 
fame. He suffered, as he himself regretfully states, 
"by a reputation too early acquired." Writing in 
1849, ^^ declares that many of his poems "would have 
been very different could the popularity of the thought 
embodied in them have been foreseen, and time and 
pains given to make the vehicle more worthy of its 
freight. Mending them has been thought of; but the 
mending of well-known poetry with new verses shows 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 147 

ill, as new pieces of mahogany in old furniture."' 
With the frankness that was always one of his pleasant- 
est traits, he^has "no hesitation in acknowledging the 
pedestal on which public favor has placed him. He 
wishes that he could climb to it again by a better 
considered path, — by a path less accidental, indeed, 
for he has written from present feelings, or for present 
gain, and with no design upon the future." Regrets 
came too late. When he had attained the maturity of 
his powers a different class of writers had appeared, 
showing a degree of thought, imagination, and poetic 
power unapproachable by the laureate of society. In 
the closing years of his life, Willis produced nothing 
of permanent value. He belonged to a bygone era. 
The city and the nation had outgrown him, and he made 
no effort to keep abreast of the times. American 
thought was being schooled in the bitter experience of 
the years leading up to the great political conflict, 
and in the terrible earnestness of those years of debate 
and war there was no room for the dilettante. During 
the last twenty years of his life Willis was a literary 
nonentity. 

The judgment which posterity — for as related to 
Willis's era, the present generation may be considered 
as posterity — ^has passed upon his writings is eminently 
just; many of his poems having been confessedly 
written "from present feelings or for present gain," 
Willis himself would have been the last to complain of 
the indifference of those to whom his personal feelings 
or personal gains are a matter of no importance what- 
ever. Yet, while it is easy enough to criticise our poet 
for his daintiness and lack of masculinity, it is unjust 
to regard him as a mere worldling. He possessed no 
broad, general culture, indeed slight intellectual force, 



148 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and still slighter poetic imagination. But he gave us 
much of the best in his time. Many of his lines have 
become household phrases, and he unquestionably 
enriched our literature by contributing some of its best 
lighter lyrics. When occasion demanded, he could 
exhibit moral as well as physical courage. When re- 
verses and misfortunes befell him, he showed a manly 
fortitude that must have surprised those who were con- 
stantly denouncing him as a dandy. Similarly in his 
literary work, he occasionally shows the possession of 
poetic faculties totally unapparent in his average verse. 
It is but fair to judge him by his best as well as his 
worst, and his best was very good. The term " Knick- 
erbocker," as applied to the New York writers, is 
without any special significance. Irving, the acknowl- 
edged leader, had not a drop of " Knickerbocker " blood 
in his veins, and many of the less distinguished writers 
of this so-called " school " were of New England birth ; 
but it was Irving's geniality and genius that gave 
literature a foothold in New York, and made it possible 
for other and less gifted writers to be appreciated. 
The " Salmagundi Papers " were the precursors of the 
" Croaker Papers " of Drake and Halleck. The influ- 
ence of Irving's lighter prose is plainly traceable in the 
works of Paulding, Sands, and Clark. He was as much 
a " society man," in the best sense of the term, as Willis, 
with the additional merit of not permitting his head to 
be turned by the marked attentions of distinguished 
people abroad. The "Knickerbocker Magazine" was 
not established until 1833, and to its contributors, the 
term of " Knickerbocker writers " was applied as a 
matter of description rather than as a mark of literary 
distinction. But as "Knickerbocker" is inseparably 
connected with the name of Irving, the personification 



THE "KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL" 149 

of what at the time was recognized as the best in our 
literature, it was only natural that the title should be 
extended to that class of literature at all suggestive of 
the charms of the author of "Knickerbocker's New 
York." 

As to the merits of the poetical writers of this group 
(always exclusive of Mr. Bryant), only a few words are 
necessary. Throughout all their works runs a similar 
strain of pleasant fancy, delicate humor, and tender 
pathos, gracefully and melodiously expressed, and 
presented in correct and proper form. Their writings 
are not profound, ambitious, or strikingly original. 
There are no "hidden meanings," no metaphysical 
subtleties, no strained intellectual conceits^ The 
meanings, whatever they may be, are entirely upon the 
surface, though to stigmatize them as superficial is 
unjust. What American literature most needed at that 
period was a reaction from the inflated affectations of 
the preceding generation, which hailed the wearisome 
Dwight and Barlow as the Homer and Virgil of 
America. Respectable dulness required a sharp an- 
tidote, and this it found in the easy pleasantry of 
the "Knickerbocker writers." 

It was once the fashion to sneer at these writers as 
echoes of the decadent Addisonian style in prose and 
the Byronic in poetry. The best of these authors 
were far from being mere imitators. The prevailing 
style was the easy grace of Irving, but to accuse them 
of an entire lack of originality betokens a strange 
ignorance of their achievements. A group that could 
boast of an Irving and a Cooper in its prose, and of a 
Halleck and a Willis in its verse, and that included 
Drake, Sands, Morris and Hoffman, Verplanck, Leg- 
gett, Francis, the Clarks, and many others, remembered 



I50 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and forgotten, is not to be contemned for its perform- 
ance. Its members were the first native writers to 
make elegant literature popular as such. Depending 
upon no adventitious aids of patriotism or propriety, 
but taking these for granted, they appealed simply to 
the more refined tastes. The poets considered in this 
chapter were as far below the singers that succeeded 
them as they were above the verse writers of the pre- 
ceding period. As a connecting link between the old 
and the new, they were an indispensable factor in our 
literary growth. The " Knickerbocker writers " have 
been called " The Old Guard " of American literature. 
They are assuredly entitled to the credit due all intel- 
ligent pioneers who, rising superior to the chaotic 
conditions around them, have prepared the way for 
those that follow. 



CHAPTER IX 

POETS OF SENTIMENJ AND PASSION 

1815-1839 

TO say that sentiment is essential to poetry is to 
state a truism. Without true sentiment the 
poetic faculty is impossible. Unless verse appeals to 
the higher feelings, it is idle to call it poetry. Senti- 
ment has been defined as an echo of reason, " though 
sometimes better heard than reason itself." The 
bane of our singers eminent during this period was 
the absence of a rational judgment to control this 
feeling. This resulted in a tendency to echo the 
weaker notes of their English contemporaries. The 
sentiment of Byron and the simplicity of Wordsworth 
would not bear transplanting. The process ended in a 
puling sentimentalism or bald prosiness. 

It was in the singularly productive literary soil of 
Connecticut that the sentimentalists of that period 
flourished. It would be a waste of effort to consider 
whether this was the natural reaction from the dull 
mechanical style of the Connecticut singers of the pre- 
ceding generation. The fact remains that the metallic 
twang of the moral and political bards of that State 
was followed by the syrupy sweetness diluted from the 
imaginings of Hillhouse, Brainard, Percival, and Mrs. 
Sigourney. Much may be attributed to the literary 
taste then prevalent, but the essential principles of all 
art are not to be sacrificed to passing fashions. All 



152 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

four of the writers named had ardent admirers in their 
time, but the traits that elicited such admiration are for 
the most part precisely those which a critical judgment 
would condemn. 

The work by which James A. Hillhouse (1789-1841) 
is chiefly remembered, if he is remembered at all, is 
his so-called "sacred drama" of "Hadad," written in 
1824. In this the agency of the supernatural is in- 
voked. Among the dramatis personcE are not only such 
distinguished persons as David, Absalom, and Solomon, 
but also such euphoniously named individuals as 
Mephibosheth, Zadok, Benaiah, Ittia, Ahithophel, 
Hushai, Malcaiah, Balaam, Haddon, and Obil. " Ha- 
dad " is no worse than hundreds of other " sacred " 
dramas. The fault lies in the theme. Modern taste 
instinctively resents the use of such agencies in litera- 
ture as are here resorted to, especially when an attempt 
is made to shirk the responsibility on the Scriptures. 
Yet there is enough merit in the work to cause regret 
that the poet's powers were so misapplied. 

While Hillhouse found his favorite themes in far-off 
lands and times, another Connecticut poet was tuning 
his pastoral pipe to woodland lays and lyrics of his 
native State. John G. C. Brainard (i 796-1 828) wrote 
in pleasing verse of the streams and legends of Connec- 
ticut, but when he attempted higher flights, he failed. 
He was among the earliest of our poets who idealized 
American scenery. This is no slight thing to say of a 
poet who died before he was thirty -two years old. 

The year 1821 was a remarkable one in our literary 
annals. Irving' s "Sketch Book " had just been pub- 
lished in complete form, soon to be followed by 
"Bracebridge Hall." In the same year appeared 
Cooper's "Spy," Dana's "Idle Man," Miss Sedgwick's 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 153 

"New England Tale," Halleck's first book, "Fanny," 
the first collective edition of Bryant's poems since his 
childhood, and the first volume of verse by James G. 
Percival. It was in some respects an initial year for 
American poetry. No volume of native poetry had 
approached the standard of Mr. Bryant's unpretentious 
little book. Halleck's "Fanny" retained its popu- 
larity for years. It seemed as if the day of small and 
mean things in our poetic literature had ended. If we 
were to continue to imitate, the imitation was some- 
thing more than mere paraphrase of English models. 

The welcome extended these volumes was most cor- 
dial. Even the young Percival had no just cause to 
find fault with his reception, though he complained of 
the indifference of the public and its lack of judgment 
in not keeping itself in a state of perpetual ecstasy over 
his poems. 

James Gates Percival (i 795-1 856) was one of those 
unhappy mortals that never can get the sentimental 
nonsense shaken out of them by even the roughest 
contact with the world. He was bound to take a de- 
spairing view of everything. No amount of worldly 
success could persuade him to be cheerful. He was 
determined to write, and when he found that people 
read and rather liked his poetry, he vowed that he 
would write no more. It is needless to add, these oft- 
repeated vows of silence were broken whenever circum- 
stances seemed to justify. Then, because he was not 
exalted to a pinnacle higher than that occupied by a 
Byron or a Moore, the reading public was denounced 
for its sordid taste. 

It was the fashion for sentimentalists to bewail in 
Byronic verse the degeneration of all things. Percival 
gave full rein to his gloomy fancies. His poem, "The 



154 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Suicide," which filled twelve dreary pages of the maga- 
zine in which it first appeared, was simply a reflex of 
his own lugubrious spirit. His style is diffuse, 
diluted, verbose. The importance which he attaches 
to his own feelings and impressions becomes tedious in 
its solemn absurdity. His closest approximations to 
cheerfulness are when he is chanting of death and 
disease. 

The work by which Percival hoped to immortalize 
himself was the long meditative monologue, "Prome- 
theus," a poem in two parts, published in 1821 and 
1822. This is a despairing wail over the woes of 
humanity and the vanity of worldly aspirations. Few 
to-day would care to read through the hundred and 
twenty-five pages filled by this poem. 

To deny to Percival all claims to poetic ability would 
be unjust. In spite of his Byronic tendencies, there 
is a nervous power in his verse that places him far 
above the majority of his predecessors. His fancies 
pour forth in a tumultuous flood that bewilders more 
than it pleases the reader. But some of his lighter 
pieces, like "The Coral Grove," show the delicacy of 
his fancy when not clouded by his constitutional mel- 
ancholy. His " May " and " Seneca Lake " fully deserve 
the wide circulation which they enjoyed. His descrip- 
tions of the beauties of nature are often poetic in 
the highest degree, and some of his lyrics, like "The 
Eagle " and " New England," have the true ring. The 
bulk of his verse, however, is of a kind that never 
will reach the popular heart; not that the spirit of his 
poetry is too profound for ordinary comprehension, but 
because of its lack of sympathy with popular interests. 
Nothing better illustrates the poverty of our early liter- 
ature than the comparative excellence of his poetry. 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 155 

Nothing better illustrates the gratifying growth of that 
literature than the overshadowing of his poetry by the 
works of youtiger writers, almost unknown when Per- 
cival was dazzling his countrymen with his Promethean 
fires. When he met his melancholy death in an 
obscure Wisconsin village, his poetic reputation was on 
the wane. 

To the period under review properly belongs a pro- 
lific writer, who, though oblivion is fast overshadowing 
her fame, was in her day the most widely read Ameri- 
can female poet. There is absolutely nothing of any 
high order of merit in her poems. Her books were 
legion, and her fame international. Lydia Huntley 
Sigourney {1791-1865) began writing verses in 1798, 
and was still writing in 1865. In fact the issuance of 
volumes from her fertile pen ceased not with her life; 
for in 1866 was published her posthumous work, "Let- 
ters of Life." In the last-nam.ed book she confesses 
responsibility for forty-six different works, "besides 
more than two thousand articles in prose and verse," 
contributed to nearly three hundred periodicals. Her 
works were read and admired in Europe, and as a token 
of esteem in which she was held as woman and author, 
she was presented by the Queen of France with a 
diamond necklace. 

Mrs. Sigourney was a native of Norwich, but with 
the exception of a European trip in 1840, was for more 
than half a century a resident of Hartford. It was in 
the latter city that for several years before her marriage 
she taught what was called " a select class of young 
ladies," and it must be confessed that most of her poetry 
is of the prim and placid character adapted to the com- 
prehension of the budding female mind. She made her 
literary debut in 18 15, when she published her volume. 



156 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

"Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse/' a title applicable 
to the great bulk of her work, including the "more 
than two thousand pieces contributed to nearly three 
hundred periodicals." Her "Traits of the Aborigines 
of America," a poem in five cantos, appeared in 1822. 
This was followed by her "Letters to Young Ladies," 
which passed through at least twenty American and 
five English editions, and "Letters to Mothers, " which 
likewise passed through a number of English and Amer- 
ican editions. 

The one great characteristic of Mrs. Sigourney's 
verse is its uniform propriety. It is pure, chaste, and 
insipid, highly moral but lowly poetical. A writer in 
"Blackwood" said: "Mrs. Sigourney has been called 
by the affectionate admiration of her countryman 
' The American Hemans, ' and she is rightly so called, 
inasmuch as she is the best of all their poetesses."^ 
This in view of the paucity of our female singers at the 
time may seem equivocal praise; but it was undeniably 
true. 

It was in the class of verse commonly called "occa- 
sional " that our songstress particularly distinguished 
herself. She was in constant demand for "lines," or 
"a sentiment," or "stanzas" to grace every sort of 
gathering. To her credit, it is to be said that she 
never refused to contribute of her talents in the further- 
ance of any praiseworthy cause. It was her versatility 
in this direction that elicited such admiration from 
Miss Edgeworth. In looking over Mrs. Sigourney's 
poems, we find there transitory effusions inspired by 
such exhilarating "occasions" as "Scene at the Death 
Bed of Rev. Dr. Payson," "The Death of Garafilia 
Mohalbi," etc. She could also sing enthusiastically of 

1 Blackwood's Magazine, May, 1834, p. 807. 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 157 

the "Power of Maternal Piety," as well as of "Mis- 
sions" and "The Sunday School." Her poetic fancy 
could descry the "bright wing'd paroquet" where the 
"swoln waters of the Illinois" are "dashing against 
the shores." She could refer to Niagara's "glorious 
robe," the "insect trump of earthly hope," "ambition's 
thunder claim," "dove-eyed meekness," and "bland 
charity." 

In her more sentimental moods she could write 
" Recollections of an aged Pastor, " " Musing Thoughts, " 
"Burial of the Young," "Death of an Infant," and 
"To the Moon." It is not surprising that her concep- 
tion of the American savage should be that of a pure 
sentimentalist. 

In writing the simple legends and describing the 
natural scenery of her native land, Mrs. Sigourney did 
her best work, though she did not disdain to compose 
ballads of the olden time and to celebrate the beauties 
of foreign climes. Her " Alpine Flowers " is pecu- 
liarly representative of her style, at once feeble and 
aspiring. It was of this poem that Dr. George B. 
Cheever once wrote : " This piece is, perhaps, the finest 
of Mrs. Sigourney' s poetry. It is in some respects so 
sublime that it forcibly reminds us of Coleridge's 
' Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouny. ' " 

It is not easy for the present generation to sympa- 
thize with the admiration once extended to the poetry 
of this estimable lady. Much of this admiration was 
doubtless due to the beauty of her personal character. 
Her whole career was one of devoted self-sacrifice. 
Forced to earn a livelihood while still a sensitive 
girl, she bore her fate as submissively as when in 
after years she sought to retrieve her husband's broken 
fortunes by the labors of her heart and brain. She 



158 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

toiled incessantly for others while denying to herself 
many of what are considered the necessaries of life. 
The benisons of the poor, the needy, the sick, and the 
infirm were frequently her sole reward. While her- 
self aspiring to the highest ideals in life, no creature 
was too lowly or too humble, or too despised to excite 
her sympathies. The slave and the savage, the outcast 
and the convict found in her a generous friend. She 
wrought for the amelioration of her race, freedom for 
the slave, reform for the criminal and the drunkard, 
aid for the fallen, and an exalted standard of morality 
in every-day affairs. It was no wonder that her strong 
personality cast its influence over so many. Her heroic 
life of duty and self-denial was her noblest poem. 

While the Connecticut of this era was the fruitful 
mother of sentimentalism, she was not alone in this 
distinction. Massachusetts gave us one female singer 
who in the "poetry of passion " excelled all her Ameri- 
can contemporaries. She essayed a bolder flight, and 
evinced a decidedly more pronounced and voluptuous 
tone and spirit than her amiable Connecticut sister 
would have dared to show. Very different from the 
feeble platitudes and placid moralizings of Mrs. Sigour- 
ney was the fervid, impassioned romancing of Mrs. 
Maria Gowen Brooks (1795-1846). 

The American reputation of Mrs. Brooks seems to 
have been chiefly a reflex of her English fame, which 
in turn was due to the efforts of Southey. It was 
he who bestowed upon her the sentimental pseudonym 
of "Maria del Occidente," by which she continued to 
be known. Southey's oft-quoted tribute to her as "the 
most impassioned and most imaginative of all poet- 
esses," has preserved her name from oblivion, even 
though her works were little read at any time. 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 159 

The subject of her long poem, "Zophiel," was sug- 
gested by the story of Sara in the apocryphal book of 
Tobit. The, incidents turn upon the love of a fallen 
angel, Zophiel, for a beautiful and passively lovely 
Hebrew maiden. 

It would be a profitless task to attempt even a synop- 
sis of the six long cantos. Amid much that is 
strained, overdrawn, and obscure, in this strange jum- 
ble of classic and oriental mythology, is an occasional 
passage that narrowly misses being beautiful. But the 
whole performance is marred by a constant striving for 
effect, a lavish display of second-hand learning, and a 
vague intensity of feeling that verges on the absurd. 

The poetess, in her liberality, combines the legen- 
dary lore of the Greeks and Romans, Jews and Mahom- 
edans indiscriminately, with a preference for the 
Hebrew traditions. 

It is difficult to find any of our narrative verse of 
that day that was not either dull or absurd. The 
American Indian had been done to death in numberless 
epics and dramas. Even Zophiel is a relief after the 
Tecumsehs and Powhattans that were being constantly 
paraded before the reading public. Mrs. Brooks' poem, 
with its air of Oriental mysticism and mystery, was no 
more false to nature than were the impossible creations 
of those who were determined to force upon us a poetic 
literature whose sole claims to merit rested in its 
alleged nationalism. With all its defects, Mrs. Brooks' 
work will always enjoy the credit of being the first 
considerable poem with creative power composed by 
an American woman. 

Frequent comment has been made upon the frantic 
attempts of our earlier writers to produce something, 
no matter what, that should be purely and distinc- 



i6o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

tively American. Nothing better illustrates our con- 
scious provincialism than these strained efforts. From 
the days of Dwight and Barlow, our early poets were 
incessantly worrying themselves to furnish something 
entirely different from anything that had preceded. 
Indio-mania and Anglo-phobia, with an occasional 
attempt to idealize Columbus, were considered the in- 
dispensable ingredients of American poetry and 
romance. Even Mrs, Brooks, at the time of her death, 
was engaged upon a portentous epic entitled "Bea- 
triz, the Beloved of Columbus," which happily was 
not published. Our literary shores are strewn with the 
driftwood of these unlucky ventures. A cursory survey 
of this period will disclose a few of these wrecks, the 
majority of which have long since been engulfed in 
the sea of oblivion. Among them will be found "The 
Frantic Maid, or the Fall of Wyoming, a Poem in Five 
Cantos," 1819; "Logan, an Indian Tale," by Samuel 
Webber, 1821 ; "The Land of Powhattan, a Poem by a 
Virginian," 1821; " Ontwa, the Son of the Forest," 
1822; "The Fall of Itwibide, or Mexico Delivered, a 
Tragedy of Five Acts," 1823 ; " Waltham, an American 
Revolutionary Tale, in Three Cantos," 1823; "Esca- 
lala, an American Tale," 1824; " Mengue, a Tale of 
the Frontier," 1825; "The Graves of the Indians," 
1827, and "The Fredoniad, or Independence Pre- 
served, an Epic Poem of the Late War," in four duo- 
decimo volumes, by Richard Emmons, 1827. 

The list might be prolonged down to the middle of 
the century. These few are mentioned to show the 
pertinacious industry of our earlier versifiers to help 
build up a truly national literature. The germs of a 
genuine literature had already begun to develop, but 
they were too simple and unpretentious to suit the 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION i6i 

soaring ambitions of these bookmakers. There is 
something formidable in the amount of misdirected 
energy displayed in these epics of mingled sentimen- 
talism, dramatic passion, and verbose patriotism. In 
1820- Sidney Smith had given his fling at American 
literature, and the bulk of material then and immedi- 
ately thereafter issuing from our printing-presses 
seemed a justification for the bitter taunt. There 
seemed to be a preconcerted plan to prove that if in 
the four quarters of the globe nobody ever read an 
American book, it should not be for lack of oppor- 
tunity. In reality all these efforts at originality were 
the most transparent of imitations. Their heroes 
and heroines, subjects and plots, were but revivals of 
worn-out European models transferred to American 
surroundings. 

Smith's gibe cut deep. It was ungenerous, and to 
a certain extent untrue. Yet that there was some 
foundation for the famous interrogatory was proved by 
our indiscriminate attempts to evade it. In 1823 John 
Neal (1793-1876), the spasmodic poet and novelist, 
made a voyage to England with the avowed purpose of 
answering the question, "Who reads an American 
Book .'' " It was in great measure owing to his vigorous 
articles in "Blackwood's" that the British mind was 
brought to recognize the existence of a nascent litera- 
ture on this side of the ocean. Among other matters 
that he duly impressed upon the British public was 
the prominent position of John Neal in the American 
world of letters. 

This versatile writer was born at Portland, of a 
Quaker family. He was read out of the brotherhood, 
according to his own statement, for sundry un-Quaker- 
like misdemeanors, among other things, for writing a 



1 62 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

tragedy. He was self-educated, and embarked in com- 
mercial and professional pursuits without very marked 
degree of success. In 1818 he published at Baltimore 
his "Battle of Niagara, a Poem without Notes." His 
tragedy of " Otho " appeared about the same time. He 
modestly refers to these as "containing altogether 
more sincere poetry, more exalted, original, pure poetry 
than all the works of all the other authors that have ever 
appeared in America." As similar claims had been 
made on behalf of at least a score of other American 
poets, there is nothing especially significant in Neal's 
pretensions. He was one of the most prolific of writ- 
ers, the amount of his prose greatly overshadowing that 
of his poetry. He published his first book in 1817, 
and his last in 1869; and he proudly refers to the fact 
that within twelve years of that period he had pub- 
lished the equivalent of fifty English duodecimo vol- 
umes. Neal himself would doubtless have resented 
with scorn the imputation of being a poet of sentiment 
or passion. In spite of his assumed brusqueness, 
there was a strong tinge of sentimentalism in his nature, 
and he was strongly influenced by Byron. 

The chief service rendered by Neal to American 
poetry was purely incidental. It was to John Neal 
that the unhappy Poe, then twenty years old, poor and 
despondent, appealed for advice. Neal recognized the 
merit in the immature efforts of the young poet and 
encouraged him to persevere. 

Among many voices long since hushed a few tuneful 
notes are discernible, showing that the spirit of song 
was still fluttering even amid discouraging surround- 
ings. During this period the South contributed sev- 
eral minor singers, who hardly deserved the fate that 
consigned them to an early oblivion. As the " Purl- 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 163 

tanic influence in the South was the slightest, we 
should naturally look for a lighter, gayer spirit than 
that manifested at the North. It is true her singers 
generally exhibited a certain sadness of tone, but as our 
greatest lyrist, himself a Southerner by choice though 
not by birth, attempted to show, sadness is in a limited 
sense one of the essentials of beauty. 

Of these Southern singers one of the earliest to con- 
tribute to the foundations of our literature was Richard 
Dabney (1787-1825). This ill-fated poet was a native 
of Louisa County, Virginia, where he died. He 
printed in 1812 his first volume of poems, which re- 
ceived but little recognition. Three years later he 
published his " Poems, Original and Selected." This 
was a little more fortunate, attracting some notice even 
across the sea. His lines on "Youth and Age," still 
frequently printed, are from his longest work, with the 
not very attractive title, " Illustrations of Simple 
Moral Emotions." This is a versified metaphysical 
treatise on the human passions. It is not so much one 
poem as a series of poems, whose general tenor, as the 
author expresses it, " entitles them to the denomination 
of Gnomiqiie, — a character of poetic composition, where 
the expression is limited to prominent and concise asso- 
ciations, in the train of thought, consequent on any 
simple emotion of taste, so as, by the preservation of 
unity, to prevent the force of that emotion from being 
diminished." The whole performance is a melancholy 
one. His lighter lyrics, "A Western War Song," 
"The Heroes of the West," and "Turn not to the 
East," though crude, show something of awakening 
national spirit. 

In 1816 another Virginian, William Maxwell (1782- 
1857), printed his small volume of verse. His poetry 



1 64 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

is not remarkable except as being in a strain different 
from that of the majority of his American contempo- 
raries. His "Ariadne to Theseus" shows his attach- 
ment to the pseudo-classic. This and some of his 
shorter pieces, like " Love and Beauty " and " Pleasure 
and Love," are among the earliest American echoes of 
the so-called French school. The chief distinction of 
these two writers rests on the ground of priority. They 
were the earliest Southern singers of note, though their 
fame was hardly national. There was one lyric written 
by a Southerner during this period, however, which 
has deservedly become an American classic. 

That anything of sufficient merit to give rise to con- 
troversy should be produced in American poetry at 
the beginning of this period, was in itself significant. 
The three stanzas composing the song " My Life is 
like the Summer Rose " attained a degree of popu- 
larity unknown at that time in Southern literature. 
These " Stanzas " were not the work of a " single- 
poem-writer," for the author wrote other finished and 
beautiful short poems that have been undeservedly 
forgotten. 

Richard Henry Wilde (i 789-1847) was a native of 
Ireland, but became an American when seven years 
old. After a long and useful public career, he spent 
several years abroad, devoting himself especially to 
Italian literature, and made his celebrated discovery 
of Giotto's lost portrait of Dante. The song referred 
to was published as early as 18 15, was set to music and 
many times reprinted. It became a favorite, and in 
due time was the subject of one of the literary hoaxes 
of the century. Mr. Anthony Barclay of Savannah, 
for his own amusement, wrote a Greek translation of it, 
whereupon a certain wiseacre in " The North American 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 165 

Review " astonished the literary world by proving be- 
yond a doubt that Wilde had plagiarized his pretty 
little poem from the writings of Alcaeus. In 1871 the 
Georgia Historical Society published Mr. Barclay's 
"Authentic Account of Mr, Wilde's Alleged Plagiar- 
ism," admitting the origin of the supposed Greek lyric. 

The song was introduced as part of an intended epic 
of Florida, and known as "The Lament of the Cap- 
tive," said to have been suggested by the story of Juan 
Ortez, sole survivor of the expedition of Panfilo de 
Narvaez. The epic was published as a fragment. 

There was but one other Southern poet of this period 
at all comparable to Wilde. Edward Coate Pinkney 
(1802-1828), of Maryland, published in 1825 a slim 
volume of poems, containing a few lyrics worthy to 
live. His little poem," A Health," has had an exten- 
sive circulation by reason of the prominence given to 
it by Poe in his essay on "The Poetic Principle." As 
a song writer, Pinkney deserves high rank. Though 
he never received the popular recognition awarded to 
the New Yorkers, Hoffman and Morris, as song writ- 
ers, the little that he did accomplish in his short life- 
time was very good. That his writings were, however, 
in some degree appreciated, is shown by the fact that 
a new edition of his poems was published in 1838, and, 
with an introductory notice by Willis, again in 1844. 

Religious poetry, as the highest expression of man's 
spiritual nature, must always occupy an important place 
in literature. The writers who gave directing power 
to our earlier poetry were distinctively of the religious 
class. Yet America has not produced a Heber or a 
Keble. The religious poems of Doane, Muhlenberg, 
and Croswell breathe a pure, sincere spirit, utterly free 
from cant and pietism. But their impression upon our 



i66 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

literature was unimportant. The same may be said of 
the works of the prolific writer, W. B. Tappan (1794- 
1849), author of several volumes more remarkable for 
their piety than their poetry. 

There was one profoundly religious poet of this 
period, however, who, from a dreary waste of moral 
platitudes, occasionally surprises the reader by a bit of 
imaginative description, whose effect is like that of a 
spring in a desert. Carlos Wilcox (i 794-1827) left 
two incomplete poems, — "The Age of Benevolence," 
in blank verse, and "The Religion of Taste," in Spen- 
serian stanzas. A poet must be judged by his works, 
and not by his promise. Wilcox wrote sufficiently to 
show how hopelessly confused were his notions of true 
poetry. Also he wrote sufficiently to show his fine 
perception of the beauties of nature. He was gifted 
with good descriptive powers, and appears at his best 
in treating of the American landscape. Frequently he 
seems to anticipate Bryant, feebly indeed, but suffi- 
ciently to suggest some of the later written lines of the 
better known poet. But such work is too rare to be 
regarded as characteristic. Wilcox's verse is chiefly 
metrical moralizing, and was very apprc)f)riately bound 
in with his prose sermons. 

Among the first to yield to the magnetic charms of 
Robert Burns was Robert Dinsmore (1757-1836), "The 
Rustic Bard," a native of Windham, New Hampshire. 
In 1828 he published, at Haverhill, his "Incidental 
Poems," composed in great part in the dialect of the 
locality where he was born and bred. This dialect 
had been introduced into that section by some Scotch- 
Irish immigrants in 17 19, and for more than a century 
was the vernacular of that region. In this limited 
sense it may be considered in Dinsmore's time as truly 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 167 

American. Unreadable as Dinsmore's poems are, 
their author may be fairly regarded as an early pioneer 
in that class of literature now grown so tediously 
familiar under the general designation of "dialect 
verse." 

Without the slightest pretension to presenting an 
exhaustive list of those who were crowding the singing 
ranks during this time, reference may be made to such 
vanishing and vanished celebrities as Grenville Mellen 
( 1 799-1 841), who wrote enough to show that he could 
have done creditable work; Lincoln Sumner Fairfield 
( 1 803-1 844), who wrote a formidable number of poems 
on ambitious themes, and who to his dying day insisted 
that his "Last Night in Pompeii," published in 1832, 
was the source of Bulwer's celebrated novel which 
appeared two years later; Rufus Dawes (i 803-1 859), 
who began his literary career as a disciple of Byron 
and ended it as a follower of Swedenborg; James 
Nack (1809-1879), the deaf and dumb poet, author of 
" The Legend of the Rocks " (1827), and later volumes ; 
and George D. Prentice (i 802-1 870), who was a true 
poet, but whose muse was ruthlessly thrust aside to 
meet the requirements of successful journalism. These 
and many others equally entitled to mention, would 
have been considered great poets in the preceding gen- 
eration. In the rank and file of our literary workers 
they did good service. Their labors were not in vain, 
slight as has been their poetic fame. They were not 
great singers, but they helped to swell the tuneful 
chorus. Searching criticism of their writings is un- 
called for. Let us tender to their memories the just 
tribute of gratitude for what they did, without being 
too captious as to their acknowledged limitations. 

The period under review, embracing about a quarter 



1 68 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of a century, marked the transition from the mechan- 
ical and artificial to the creative and natural. The 
suggestions of artistic spirit, of imaginative force, or 
creative power, were feeble indeed, but their presence 
was manifest, their influence felt. The perfunctory 
epics and Delia Cruscan echoes of the preceding period 
had given place to the works of Allston, Dana, and 
Pierpont, Drake, Halleck, and Willis. The change 
was not sufficient to betoken a national literature in 
full development, but it was certainly an advance. 
With a few exceptions, our verse-writers of this period 
were greatly overrated by their admirers. The reaction 
has been equally pronounced. Extravagant adulation 
has given place to a frigid indifference, and much that 
was really commendable and worthy of permanence 
has suffered unmerited neglect. Few indeed are the 
singers of any age whose songs are remembered by 
the succeeding generation. The poets that we have 
just been considering were pioneers in our literature, 
but it is not priority alone that entitles their best works 
to favorable consideration. Theirs were the voices 
crying in the wilderness of a provincial, utilitarian, and 
self-absorbed age. Though constantly boasting of our 
national greatness, we were absurdly sensitive to 
criticism. An American poetaster's cup of bliss was 
full if his works were favorably criticised in an Eng- 
lish review. Trans-Atlantic favor was regarded as a 
foreshadowing of posthumous fame. Should the British 
critic, however, refer disparagingly to any American 
work, our national heart was instantly fired by sugges- 
tions of Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and Yorktown, as 
affording conclusive reasons for the impossibility of 
British justice to American literature. This sensitive- 
ness to foreign opinion indicates how little, even in the 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 169 

second generation after the revolution, we had out- 
grown our provincialism. In this respect our poets 
were not muc^ better than the rest of the people. Nor 
had we yet become entirely emancipated from the 
Puritanic prejudice against abstract beauty and all the 
finer elegances of life that did not tend to intensely 
practical ends. Herein our nascent literature was 
doing a noble work. The influence of our best writers 
in helping to refine and elevate our crude tastes and 
prejudices cannot be over-estimated. But it was in 
quite another direction that American verse was begin- 
ning to assume a decidedly characteristic strain. The 
great social and political controversy of the day affected 
poetry as well as every other form of our literature. 
In the sacrifice of truth and justice to considerations of 
expediency, the national conscience was becoming de- 
bauched. Then, as in pre-Revolutionary days, the 
spirit of song rose clear and distinct above the strifes 
of faction, and warned us that there were higher ideals 
in life than bare material prosperity. On the walls of 
his cell in the Baltimore jail, William Lloyd Garrison, 
in 1830, had inscribed his now celebrated sonnet, one 
of the first successful attempts to embody the true 
American spirit in that form of verse. The ringing 
strains of Pierpont anticipated the stirring notes of 
Lowell, and already the young Whittier had signalized 
his entrance upon manhood by branding in words of 
fire the nation's shame. Unheeding indeed were the 
ears upon which fell these earliest protests. Yet not 
many years elapsed before we learned that the men 
who were then being imprisoned, mobbed, and perse- 
cuted, were the real prophets of the people. The his- 
tory of the anti-slavery conflict is too closely interwoven 
with that of our literature to be entirely ignored even 



I70 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

in its earlier stages. Reference is made to it here 
simply as one of the shaping forces of much that was 
best in the minor verse of a later period. 

In view of the amount produced during those years, 
the actual results are meagre enough. Out of the tor- 
rent of epics, tragedies, metrical romances, and de- 
scriptive verse of every name and nature, it is safe to 
say that but two narrative poems, Drake's "Culprit 
Fay" and Dana's "Buccaneer," have obtained a per- 
manent place in literature. But few short poems have 
survived half a century, — Payne's " Home, Sweet 
Home," Wilde's "Stanzas," Drake's "American 
Flag," Pierpont's "Passing Away," Halleck's "Marco 
Bozzaris," "Burns," and monody on Drake, and a few 
lyrics of Willis, Sprague, Pinkney, Hoffman, and 
Morris, would very nearly complete the list of short 
poems whose popularity was at all commensurate with 
their merits. 

Yet even these were sufificient to indicate that our 
literature had passed the germinal stage, and was be- 
coming productive. Far above all was the genius that 
could produce for us the simple but majestic strains of 
" Thanatopsis, " " A Forest Hymn, " and " The Prairies. " 
It was the happy fate of the Nestor of American poets, 
not only to produce the noblest poem that had yet been 
written by an American, but for more than half a cen- 
tury thereafter to witness the full development of our 
national poetry as embodied in the works of himself 
and his younger compeers. Had Bryant written noth- 
ing later than 1839, he would still have been entitled 
to an honorable rank in our literature. His life work 
extended for nearly thirty-nine years after that date, and 
much of his best work was produced after the appear- 
ance of Longfellow's first volume of original verse. It 



POETS OF SENTIMENT AND PASSION 171 

is with a sense of relief, not unmodified, perhaps, with 
a feeling of decorous regret, that we take leave of the 
period of respectable mediocrity. We have traversed 
the arid fields of colonial endeavor, witnessed the ger- 
minal developments of the Revolutionary period, and 
the earliest products of our assured national career. 
Before us stretch the fair gardens of nobler achieve- 
ment. At the portals stands the honored master who 
gathered wisdom from the forest shades and sang the 
beauties of the natural world. Reverently but gladly 
let us approach, and take to heart the lesson of life ex- 
emplified in his words and works. 



CHAPTER X 

POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 

1817-1870 

AMERICAN poetry, as generally understood, had 
its birth in a contemplation on death. There 
was nothing incongruous in this. The general ten- 
dency of American verse, before it became poetry, had 
been toward the solemn and mournful. It may be a 
literary conceit, but it is worth a passing thought, that 
the theologic elegies of the Puritans, and the coun- 
terfeit heroics of their successors, were destined to cul- 
minate in these grandly sonorous lines upon death. 
The effect of the sudden appearance of such a produc- 
tion as "Thanatopsis " in our literary desert was much 
as if a classic temple had been exorcised from the wil- 
derness by the strains of a new Amphion. It was as if 
an architecturally perfect Egyptian palace of the dead 
had sprung up in a frontier settlement dwarfing and 
humbling all surrounding objects. The poem was 
composed during the summer after its author had with- 
drawn from college. It was the impressive lesson 
breathed into his soul by the whispering trees, the 
dying leaves, and the mouldering soil of the forest. 
This exalted strain, contemplative of the future as dis- 
passionately as of the past, seems in its majestic music 
like the requiem mass of humanity. 

At the time of the poet's birth, and for years after- 
ward, Pope and Cowper, as poets, were more esteemed 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 173 

in America than were Homer and Shakespeare. Bryant 
himself, in his first volume of youthful verse, betrayed 
his allegiance to prevailing fashions. These boyish 
effusions were properly suppressed, having no perma- 
nent value save as illustrating the author's mental 
development. y ' 

The real literary life of William Cullen Bryant (1794- 
1878) began in 181 1, when he surreptitiously jotted 
down his reflections on death. These were kept con- 
cealed for six years before their appearance in "The 
North American Review " for September, 1817. The 
same number of the " Review " contained other lines by 
the young poet, called "A Fragment," but now en- 
titled " Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood. " This 
was written four years later than "Thanatopsis," and 
in the same exalted strain. These two pieces were the 
highest order of original poetry that had yet appeared 
in America. American poetry was born. Would it 
mature, or was it doomed to an early blight, chilled 
by popular indifference.-' As became a young nation, 
our first true songs were the voices of nature. Would 
those voices find an audience, or would they be stifled 
and hushed amid the contentions of more pressing and 
aggressive duties ? 

Young "Cullen," when not holding communion with 
the "visible forms" of nature, studied law, was duly 
admitted to the bar, and determined to try his fortune 
in the neighboring village of Plainfield, Mass. Alone 
and on foot, the young barrister left Cummington on 
his little journey of seven miles over the mountains, 
his sole capital consisting in an ordinary education, a 
shy, sensitive disposition, and a stout heart. It is no 
wonder, as he left his father's roof on the 15th of 
December, 18 15, that he suffered some misgivings. 



174 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

He felt, as he expressed it, very forlorn and desolate 
indeed, not knowing what was to become of him " in 
the big world, which grew bigger as he ascended, and 
yet darker with the coming on of night." A lonely 
bird flitting across the landscape attracted his atten- 
tion. The winged wanderer awoke a sympathetic chord 
in the mind of the traveller, suggesting a few lines 
which, as soon as he arrived at his future home, were 
transcribed to paper. The " Waterfowl " had soared 
into lasting fame, and inspired one of the noblest 
didactic poems in literature. The sublime faith indi- 
cated in the last stanza of the poem never forsook the 
poet " in the long way " that he had to tread from rural 
obscurity to the eminent position of New York's most 
distinguished citizen, whom Lincoln declared it worth 
a journey East to see. At the first appearance of the 
poem in England, young Hartley Coleridge pronounced 
it "the best short poem in the English language," an 
opinion in a measure shared by Matthew Arnold. ^ 

But the young man's heart was not in his profession. 
Neither Plainfield nor Great Barrington in Berkshire 
satisfied his longings. Frequently would he "steal an 
hour from study and care," and in the haunts of nature 
seek the solace hardly to be looked for in a country law 
office. As a result Green River rippled into song, and 
preserved the record of the singer's discontent. 

The favorable reception awarded Bryant's efforts by 
those most competent to judge, as well as his growing 
distaste for his profession, seemed to foreshadow a lit- 
erary career. He remained in Great Barrington four 
years after the publication of his first book in 1821. 
During that time he continued to write his poems 
chiefly as contributions to Dana's "Idle Man," "The 

1 Bigelow's Life of Bryant, p. 43. 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 175 

New York Review," and "The United States Literary- 
Gazette." The poet's powers were unfolding. He 
essayed a broader range, if not a higher flight. Each 
one of the poems written during his Berkshire life has 
its acknowledged place in our literature. The Muse 
had fairly claimed him as her own, and the law exerted 
its charms in vain. Bryant bade farewell to his simple 
rural life and gladly availed himself of an offer on the 
editorial staff of "The New York Review," afterwards 
merged in "The United States Review." It was not 
an auspicious period for literary magazines, though 
under Mr. Bryant's leadership "The Review " rendered 
excellent service to our literature. Says Mr. Parke 
Godwin: — 

" Dana also contributed to it his best things, ' The Dying 
Raven,' 'Fragments of an Epistle,' 'The Husband and Wife's 
Grave,' and ' The Little Beach Bird.' It introduced to the 
public Halleck's ' Marco Bozzaris,' 'Burns,' 'Wyoming,' and 
'Connecticut' (the three last after it was changed to 'The 
United States Review'), which are his best: several of the 
earlier efforts of Longfellow, which however were not his 
best, and of N. P. Willis who wrote under the name of Roy. 
Mr. George Bancroft, since eminent as an historian, aspired to 
poetry then, and translated for it from Goethe and Schiller, 
and Mr. Caleb Cushing opened his varied career in it by 
gentle flirtations with the Italian Muses." ^ 

After Bryant had formed his connection with " The 
Evening Post" (1828) he continued to publish his 
verse at intervals. His arduous duties as journalist 
and public-spirited citizen only enhanced his loyalty 
to nature. It is customary among certain critics to 
speak of Bryant's mind as narrow and deep. He was, 
in fact, the broadest-minded of men. Nothing that 

1 Godwin's Life of Bryant, I. 226. 



176 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

interested humanity was alien to him. In all his lit- 
erary, political, and philanthropical labors he was in- 
tensely in earnest. He despised insincerity. As a 
poet, he sang of nature's beauties and her teachings, of 
the pure affections, of love of home and country and 
all the higher aims of life. As a man, he exemplified 
his poetry. While as a poet he denounced tyranny in 
the abstract, as a journalist he fought it in the concrete 
as represented in American slavery and vicious politics. 
Though with him the functions of the poet and editor 
were always distinct, they were really complementary 
of each other. From his lofty height he caught the 
messages of nature and transmitted them to earth. In 
his practical every-day life he sought to inculcate the 
highest ideals, and through all the pretences and artifi- 
cialisms of current politics and social life, to lead back 
to first principles of human brotherhood and the in- 
herent rights of man. 

Washington Irving, in his dedication to Samuel 
Rogers of an English edition of Bryant's poems, 
refers to the essentially American character of the 
poet's writings, — his descriptions of the solemn pri- 
meval forest, the shores of the lonely lake, "the banks 
of the wild and nameless stream," and "the rocky up- 
land, rising like a promontory from amidst a wide ocean 
of foliage, while they shed around us the glories of a 
climate fierce in its extremes but splendid in all its 
vicissitudes." "Neither, I am convinced," adds Mr. 
Irving, "will it be the least of his merits in your eyes 
that his writings are imbued with the independent 
spirit and the buoyant aspirations incident to a youth- 
ful, a free, and a rising country."^ 

Because Bryant was the poet of nature, he was also 

1 living's edition of Bryant's Poems, p. v, London, 1832. 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 177 

the poet of freedom. Despotism in any form appeared 
to him contrary to nature's laws, and therefore despi- 
cable. Struggling patriots, whether in Greece, Italy, , 
or America, found in him a ready champion. This, / 
as well as his ideal descriptions of American scenery, / 
characterizes him as a notably national poet. But i 
above and beyond all, he was nature's evangelist to 
man. He caught the spirit of the messages whispered 
by the trees, sung by the rivers and chanted by the sea. 
Trees and flowers, the forest and the prairies, the 
clouds, the sky and the stars, the sea, the tides, and the 
winds, the thunder-storm and the hurricane, spoke to 
him a "various language," which he interpreted to his 
fellow-men. To use his own words, — 

" Each brought in turn, 
Some truth, some lesson on the life of man, 
Or recognition of the eternal mind 
Who veils his glory with the elements." 

To him the groves were " God's first temples." The 
evening wind was " God's blessing breathed upon a 
fainting earth." The fountain, gushing up from its 
dark birthplace and flashing in the sun, symbolizes how 
" from the dark and foul " are brought " the pure and 
bright." The stormy month of March, with all its 
drawbacks, is one of hope and encouragement, in 
whose sternest frown abides "a look of kindly promise 
yet." He shows imagination as well as fancy when 
he refers to the winds that "scoop the ocean to its 
briny springs," and in his simile relative to the flight 
of days from youth to age, as snow-flakes in the winter's 
storm "seen rather than distinguished." 

We had had versifiers even before Bryant who had 
attempted to sing of nature and her charms, but none 
who showed the imaginative sympathy of this poet of 



178 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the woods. Carlos Wilcox, who was once seriously 
spoken of as the Cowper of New England, left some 
good lines descriptive of summer noon, but dull and 
mechanical when compared with the life-breathing 
lines of Bryant on "Midsummer." It was Bryant who 
set to American poets the example of going close to 
nature and describing her as she appears here, and not 
as she had been sung by writers of other lands. A 
nature-poet need not be a naturalist or astronomer. 
Mr. Burroughs properly criticises some of Bryant's 
descriptions as not always true to nature, just as Mr. 
Alfred Austin saw fit to ridicule Tennyson for his 
reference to "moonless Mars," because subsequent dis- 
coveries proved Mars not to be moonless. Bryant was 
no ornithologist, any more than Tennyson was an 
astronomer. But conformity to scientific accuracy is 
not expected or desirable in imaginative literature. 

Regarding Bryant as a type of our nature-poets, per- 
haps a just criticism would be that he reflects the re- 
pose, the grandeur, the awe-inspiring features of 
nature's handiwork, rather than the life or picturesque- 
ness. Nature was to him an expression of the eternal 
mind, almost too vast, too august for purely human 
sympathy. A younger poet who has caught in his 
blank verse much of the Bryant spirit, as if in revolt at 
this attitude, defiantly declares, — 

" Creation is enough for me. 

I will not look 

On creed or book 
Or aught beside the earth and skies ; 

There is no need 

Of book or creed, 
To teach a man and make him good and wise." 

Possibly, if Bryant had followed his own advice and 
shown more evidence in his verse of the warm current 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 



179 



tingling in his veins, he might have more strongly 
impressed his individuality upon our literature. His 
self-control joften seems to act as a chilling restraint to 
his "burning words in fluent strains." All through 
his poems there seems evidence of a strong reserve 
force held in constant check. His "Winter Piece," 
appropriately enough, is cold and glittering, and as 
lifeless apparently as trees covered with frozen sleet, 
very different in its effect from the picturesque descrip- 
tion in Emerson's "Snow Storm." This trait is car- 
ried to a painful extreme in his otherwise noble " Hymn 
to Death," in which he attempts to treat the subject in 
an unconventional manner. But as if awed by the 
greatness of his own conception, he proceeds warily 
and even timidly, and at last, with only partial success, 
if not completely baffled, leaves the poem little more 
than a fragment. In strong contrast is the bold, un- 
flinching treatment by Whitman, who takes up the 
theme again and again, masters it thoroughly, and 
shows how inspiring after all are the "whispers of 
heavenly death." Again, take the opening lines of 
Bryant's sonorous poem "Earth," — 

" A midnight black with clouds is in the sky ; 
I seem to feel upon my limbs the weight 
Of its vast brooding shadow, all in vain 
Turns the tired eye in search of form ; no star 
Pierces the pitchy veil ; no ruddy blaze, 
From dwellings lighted by the cheerful hearth, 
Tinges the flowering summits of the grass. 
No sound of life is heard, no village hum, 
Nor measured tramp of footstep in the path, 
Nor rush of wing, while, on the breast of Earth, 
I lie and listen to her mighty voice ; 
A voice of many tones, sent up from streams 
That wander through the gloom, from woods unseen, 
Swayed by the sweeping of the tides of air, 



i8o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

From rocky chasms where darkness dwells all day, 
And hollows of the great invisible hills, 
And sands that edge the ocean stretching far 
Into the night — a melancholy sound ! " 

This is strong, stately, poetic, but how stiff and 
formal when compared with the joyous abandonment 
of his brother poet ! 

" I am he that walks with the tender and growing night, 
I call to the earth and sea half held by the night, 
Night of south winds — night of the large few stars ! 
Still nodding night — mad naked summer night. 

" Smile, O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth ! 
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees ! 
Earth of departed sunset, — earth of the mountains 

misty topt ! 
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged 

with blue ! 
Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river ! 
Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and 

clearer for my sake ! 
Far-swooping elbow'd earth, — rich blossom'd earth ! 
Smile, for your lover comes ! " 

Perhaps the difference between these two rare poets 
of nature may be best exemplified by the attitude of 
each toward the ocean. Bryant, standing on the shore, 
looks forth — 

" Over the boundless blue, where joyously 
The bright crests of innumerable waves 
Glance to the sun at once, as when the hands 
Of a great multitude are upward flung 
In acclamation." 

This and other things he sees, draws therefrom a 
lesson, interprets for us, and goes his way. Whitman, 
likewise standing on the beach, beholds the waves not 
as applauding hands, but as " crooked, inviting fingers." 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE i8i 

He cannot resist the invitation, cushions him soft in 
ocean's embrace, is rocked in the "billowy drowse," 
is dashed vi^ith the "amorous wet," and becomes " inte- 
gral " with the sea itself. Whitman was the incarna- 
tion of nature, but Bryant its loving interpreter. The 
three poems just mentioned are characteristic of Bryant's 
strength and weakness, but such pieces as " The Voice 
of Autumn," "Waiting by the Gate," "The Land of 
Dreams," and "The May Sun Sheds an Amber Light," 
show true imaginative power under the perfect guidance 
of a master. 

Whitman's attitude toward nature was one of close 
fellowship rather than profound veneration. This has 
been assigned as a reason for Mr. Addington Symonds 
finding him " more thoroughly Greek than any other 
man of modern times." I am not sure but that some- 
thing similar pervades much of our best nature poetry, 
which in certain features is often more Hellenic than 
English. Some of Emerson's poems, — "The Snow 
Storm" and "The Humble-Bee," for instance, — seem 
like strains wafted down from that far distant age when 
man lived close to nature. The proper relation of 
poetry to nature has been defined by the infelicitous 
phrase "intuitive immediateness. " This lumbering 
expression, perhaps as well as any, describes the atti- 
tude of the Greek pastoral poets not less than that of 
modern singers, like Whitman, Emerson, and Bryant. 
The last-named could no more resist nature's influence 
than he could surrender his gift of song, for to him the 
sky, the forest, the ocean, and all the manifestations 
of nature were poetry itself. Nature and poetry are 
as, inseparable as truth and beauty. Bryant took to 
Greek life and literature as if by intuition. In early 
life he made a successful translation of a fragment of 



1 82 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Simonides, wrote strongly in favor of the Greek Revo- 
lutionists, and gave us some stirring lyrics on Greek 
subjects. In dignity, repose, and poetic fancies, Bry- 
ant's genius was essentially Hellenic. It was this 
spirit of kinship, rather than erudition, that enabled 
the American poet to succeed in his Homeric labors 
where more learned classical scholars have failed. 
The translations are spirited, idiomatic, and musical. 
The diction simple, direct, and noble, and therefore 
Homeric. 

The extant fragments of his "Tale of Cloudland " 
and " Castles in the Air " give a hint of what might 
have been expected from Bryant in the shape of sus- 
tained effort, though he was opposed to long poems. 
"Sella" and "The Little People of the Snow" are 
probably his best creations of pure fancy. Possibly 
the true reason why Bryant never gave us a long poem 
was to be found in the limitations of the poet rather 
than in abstract argument against long poems in gen- 
eral. His peculiarly meditative cast of mind would 
perhaps have precluded the possibility of a successful 
idyl or epic. We are told that the descriptive parts 
in his unfinished manuscript poem, "The Spectre 
Ship," are out of all proportion to the narrative. No 
one better understood his own limitations than Mr. 
Bryant himself, and he wisely made no serious effort 
to do anything that he could not do thoroughly well. 
Mr. Bigelow is doubtless right also in suggesting that 
"the ethical, which in the language of a sister art is 
called the motif of all his verse in which reflection 
ruled, subordinating if not excluding all the demonstra- 
tions of passion, would be fatal to the success of a long 
poem." There is nothing especially to be regretted in 
this. We may without a pang surrender from our lit- 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 183 

erature Emmons' four-volume epic on the last war with 
England, though we refuse to part with a single line 
of the eight stanzas "To a Waterfowl." 

Like the Greeks of old, Bryant derives his inspira- 
tion from the elements themselves. To such a true 
disciple of nature anything low, mean or sordid is as 
alien as darkness to the sun. In his early youth he 
nobly sang of man's mortality; in his age he sang in 
equally noble strains the immortality of man. Bryant's 
creative labors may be said to have ended in 1876, when 
in his eighty-second year he poured forth the torrent of 
poetic imagery in his sonorous poem "The Flood of 
Years." This may be fairly considered his swan-song, 
for in the remaining two years of his life he gave us 
nothing worthy of his genius. The poem ends with its 
words of hope and consolation and the vision of univer- 
sal concord. Such was the final message from our 
first true poet of nature. While still a dreaming lad, 
he had depicted his view of death shorn of gloomy 
terrors, and in his venerated age his convictions of 
immortality remained unchanged and unshaken. Nor 
did his influence cease with his life. To all who cher- 
ish lofty ideals, his example will continue to beam like 
a beacon light above the flood of years. 

All poets are ministrants at nature's shrine, although 
it is not given to them all to interpret with equal 
power. Thoreau, who was a poet-naturalist in prose, 
could scarce be anything else in verse. Mist, haze, and 
smoke float through his lines with a volatility suggest- 
ive of the subjects. The best poetry of the South is 
that inspired by nature. The same may be said of the 
later Western poetry. Henry Timrod, the lyrist of the 
Confederate cause, could truly sing of " Spring in South 
Carolina," — 



i84 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

" At times a fragrant breeze comes floating by, 
And brings, you know not why, 
A feeling as when eager crowds await 
Before a palace gate 

" Some wondrous pageant ; and you scarce would start 
If from a beach's heart, 

A blue-eyed Dryad, stepping forth, would say, 
« Behold me ! I am May ! ' " 

To the New England poet, however, — 

" May is the pious fraud of the almanac," 

her accredited virtues being properly attributable to 
the next month. 

Like all our distinctively national poets, Lowell is 
on free terms with nature. He is never more himself 
than in his day dreams under the trees, indulging in 
an Indian summer reverie, or listening to the music of 
the birds and brooks. The dandelion is dearer to him 
than the "prouder summer blooms." This common 
flower is his "tropics and his Italy;" even to look at 
it "unlocks a warmer clime," just as to Emerson the 
humble-bee is an animated torrid zone. Lowell's atti- 
tude toward nature differs from the calm contemplation 
of Bryant, the subtle divination of Emerson, or the phys- 
ical joyousness of Whitman, yet possesses something 
of each. He is not a mere landscape artist, but creates 
his own scenes and fills them with the creations of rich 
fancy. He idealizes common objects, and in spite of 
his constant protests against didacticism, is not above 
recognizing the uses that underlie the forms of beauty. 
Longfellow's descriptions are those of an artist, highly 
imaginative and poetic throughout, though accused of 
not being always according to facts of science. Whit- 
tier understood outdoor life, and his descriptions of 
New England scenery and climate are faithful to 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 185 

nature and to poetry. The characteristic work of these 
three poets, however, was reserved for other fields. 

Probably Nathaniel Hawthorne was right in referring 
to Jones Very of Massachusetts (1813-1880) as a "poet 
whose voice is scarcely heard among us by reason of its 
depth." Certain it is that Very never appealed to any 
but a limited audience. He uttered the promptings of 
his spirit serenely oblivious of the manner of their re- 
ception. Though he sang of beauty, it was the beauty 
of morality rather than the abstract quality. His de- 
scriptions of nature are those of a mystic rather than 
of an artist. 

Very has left us about a hundred short poems relat- 
ing to nature in her different aspects. Trees, birds, 
and insects, rocks, clouds, and sunsets appeal to his 
spiritual understanding, and he is never at a loss to 
draw from them some lesson or suggestion on the con- 
duct of life. His sympathy with nature is profound, 
but his methods of expression not varied. This and 
the frequent repetition of his subject give his writings 
an impression of monotony fatal to an extended read- 
ing. He is seldom trite, though his reflections are 
often drawn from the commonest objects. Close to 
ourselves lie the wonders of nature, is the keynote of 
his poetry. The wind-flower, the columbine, and the 
snowdrop were to him as eloquent as a forest, a moun- 
tain, or an ocean. He was one of the most original as 
well as most unreadable of our poets. All his poems 
are infused with the sweetness of his own anemones 
and columbines, of too subtle an essence to suit the 
general taste. 

Among minor poets who trod in Bryant's footsteps, 
none gave greater promise than the author of " Fron- 
tenac." Alfred B. Street (iSii-iSSi) was pre-emi- 



i86 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

nently the minstrel of New York and her scenery. 
During the height of his fame he was regarded as the 
most distinguished native singer that that State had 
produced. Abroad he received flattering notices from 
German, French, and Dutch writers. At home Bayard 
Taylor and H. T. Tuckerman both compared his work 
to that of the Flemish painters. Bryant naturally found 
much to praise in the work of his disciple, compliment- 
ing him on the fidelity and vividness of his " images 
drawn from nature." Of the accuracy of Mr. Street's 
descriptions little need be said. In his verse natural 
scenery seems photographed rather than idealized, and 
its impression soon faded from the public mind. The 
several volumes of his verse find now few readers. In 
spite of appreciative criticism in two hemispheres, but 
one short poem, "The Settler," may be said to retain 
its hold on popular favor. This is to be regretted, for 
the very music and freedom of outdoor life seem re- 
peated in many of the poems comprised in " Woods and 
Waters" and "Forest Pictures of the Adirondacks." 

If scanty justice had been awarded to the efforts of 
Very and Street, what is to be said of the fate of that 
sweetest of all Southern singers of this period, Paul 
Hamilton Hayne (183Q-1886).? He was the embodi- 
ment of the poetic spirit of the South, idealizing her 
landscapes with all the fervor of a semi-tropical imagi- 
nation. Together with his friends, Simms and Timrod, 
Hayne, before the war, labored to establish something 
like a literary atmosphere in the South. The verse of 
Simms and Timrod was not of the highest order, — 
that of the former being eclipsed by his prose, — but 
their influence was in favor of culture. Hayne was 
read and admired in Europe as well as in his native 
land. In 1855 he published his first volume of poems, 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 187 

containing his sonnet on "October," the brilliant 
imagery of which at once disclosed the young poet's 
talents as a word-painter. Hayne's neighbors as well 
as his English admirers have styled him " The Laureate 
of the South." A truer appellation, perhaps, would be 
"The Woodland Minstrel of America." He was not 
the high-priest of nature in the broadest sense. He 
does not disclose the range of imagination, the loftiness 
of conception, the profound meditativeness of the 
Northern masters, but he sings his notes as naturally 
as a bird carolling in the treetops. So genuine is his 
voice, so true in tone, so musical, that it is question- 
able if he should be classed among our minor poets. 
In the silvery melody of his verse he forcibly recalls 
Poe, of whom he was evidently a sympathetic student. 
It would be difficult to find in literature a more appro- 
priate picture of Southern scenery than in his " Aspects 
of the Pines. " Within its five stanzas of stately rhythm 
are exposed to view the Southern pines, " tall, sombre, 
grim," in their different aspects, in the airs of morning 
and of noon, until at sunset, when the waves of light 
are swept by "flute-like breezes," which, "lifting the 
dark-green tresses of the pine," 

" Till every lock is luminous, gently float, 

Fraught with hale odors, up the heavens afar 
To faint where Twilight on her virginal throat 
Wears for a gem the tremulous vesper star." 

These three singers. Very, Street, and Hayne, have 
been selected as typifying the best among our minor 
nature-poets during the golden era of American song. 
Fairly symbolizing respectively the mysticism, the 
picturesqueness, the beauty of American nature, they 
were each distinctively American. In a period later 
than that designed to be covered by this chapter, the 



i88 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

new South and the far West each had poets to idealize 
their scenes, to be referred to more at length in a later 
chapter. 

Our Northern poets have sung as appreciatively of 
winter scenes as have our Southern minstrels of their 
own sunny clime. It is impossible for an American 
poet to resist the suggestions of nature everywhere 
appealing to him. This is to be expected of a country 
where nature's handiwork supplies the inspirations 
elsewhere to be gathered from a storied past. As a 
pioneer, Bryant will probably retain his prestige as 
long as American literature exists. The change typi- 
fied by him was epochal. By him poetry among us was 
brought back to its primal uses, and imagination en- 
throned in her proper place in the realm of song. 
Great Pan might be dead, but the time had none the 
less come when music was to be breathed from the 
woods and waters of America. On account of his pri- 
ority, Bryant has been in this chapter awarded the 
place of honor among our poets of nature, though he 
has been excelled by both Emerson and Whitman in 
spiritual interpretations. Among all these writers it 
is the ethical motive that prevails. 

It is not enough that the landscape be described in 
fitting word-pictures. " Perfect descriptions of scen- 
ery" are apt to be poor poetry. Unless something 
more than external beauty is found and reported, the 
singer would better remain silent. The poet must 
recognize himself as a spark of the divinity which in a 
certain sense is nature. He may be misunderstood 
and accused by grosser intellects of pantheism, but it is 
a pantheism taught by Christian and Pagan religions 
alike. Mr. R. H. Stoddard, in his rhapsody on nature, 
uses the words " My mind the Universe, the Universe 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 189 

my Mind." By some such language does poetry ex- 
press its identity with nature. Behind the outward 
forms the seer discerns the spirit that permeates all, 
the "conscious law" that is "king of kings." To him 
the voices of nature have the deep spiritual meaning 
which to Emerson made the gladness of the woods an 
inspiration, for — 

" There the great Planter plants 
Of fruitful worlds the grain, 
And with a million spells enchants 
The souls that walk in pain. 

" Still on the seeds of all he made 
The rose of beauty burns ; 
Through times that wear and forms that fade. 
Immortal youth returns.'' 

It is to the credit of our poets after Bryant that they 
interpreted nature in the true spirit, instead of allow- 
ing themselves to be interpreted. It is true there will 
always exist bardlings who regard nature as a vehicle 
to convey their own feelings, loves, and disappoint- 
ments. But such have long since ceased to be of im- 
portance in literature. 

The frequently repeated charge that American poetry 
lacks individuality need not concern us much. Our 
nature-poetry is as national in its meaning and spirit, 
its breadth and scope, its teaching and aspiration, as 
that of any other people. Whether it is adapted to the 
changed methods of thought is another matter. The 
influence of scientific research is slight, though Very 
has given us some perfunctory lines on the railway, 
the telegraph, and the telephone. Whitman in his 
resounding chants, and Emerson in his oracular qua- 
trains, have in a measure interpreted the triumphs of 
science. Dr. Holmes, notably in his " Wind-Clouds 



I90 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and Star-Drifts," has shown how intimately science 
and poetry may be blended. There is no reason why 
the inspiring discoveries in astronomy, the startling 
suggestions of geology, and the achievements of elec- 
tricity, with its thought-baffling possibilities still in 
store, should not appeal as powerfully to the imagina- 
tion of modern poets as the superstitions of the Greeks 
did to that of the ancients. Mr. John Burroughs, in 
one of his essays, has shown how in literature, " from a 
goddess. Nature has changed to a rustic nymph, a 
cloistered nun, a heroine of romance, besides other 
characters not so definite, till she has at last become a 
priestess of the soul. What will be the next phase is 
perhaps already indicated in the poems of Walt Whit- 
man, in which nature is regarded mainly in the light 
of science through the immense vistas opened up by 
astronomy and geology." However this may be, it 
must be admitted that our best nature-poetry hitherto 
has been of the ideal and spiritual, in which the truths 
of chemistry and physics have been subordinated to 
those of art and imagination. 

Nature and man are the most suggestive themes for 
poets of a young republic. Yet imaginative and crea- 
tive influences were later in our home verse than in our 
songs of nature. That something more than home 
themes was required to constitute home poetry, the 
experience of our earlier versifiers sufficiently proves. 
Piety and patriotism refused to be converted into 
poetry on call. The countless high-flown epics deal- 
ing with Columbus, the Indians, and the Revolutionary 
War, perished from lack of internal vitality. A slight 
improvement was indicated when Paulding undertook 
to create an idyl on the subject of "The Backwoods- 
man " (1818); but the attempt was interesting only as 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 191 

showing how unreadable such metrical treatises may 
be made. Thirty-seven years later, T. Buchanan 
Read's "New Pastoral" showed that a similar theme 
might be invested with a poetic glamour, — rather pale 
perhaps, but still suggestive of art and imagination. 
Such performances fell far short of being true idyls of 
American life. Single episodes in our history had been 
idealized by Bryant and Longfellow, but it remained for 
a very different genius to interpret the life in America 
and arouse the love and veneration of a whole people. 

The secret of Whittier's influence may be best ex- 
plained, perhaps, by one word, — sympathy. " Pure 
and unspotted from the world" as he was, so strong 
were his sympathies for humanity that it is not in 
normal human nature to resist the charm of his sim- 
plicity, charity, and courage; his loyalty to truth honor, 
and conscience; his contempt for sham, tyranny, and 
hypocrisy. Denied scholastic training, he was recog- 
nized by the people as one who had risen from their 
own ranks, who had passed through their own experi- 
ences of life, and was in full sympathy with their own 
aims and purposes. It was not because he was in- 
tensely religious, for moral and didactic poets in this 
age rarely excite the enthusiasm of their readers. It 
was not because he was the poet of a section, for the 
whole nation now approves him as its interpreter. It 
was not because he was an ardent reformer, for reform- 
ers as such seldom ingratiate themselves in the love of 
their own contemporaries. It was not alone because 
he sang of freedom, goodness, and love of home. Other 
American singers had been doing the same thing for a 
century before his death. In all he wrote there was 
that broadly sympathetic spirit which went straight to 
the hearts of his readers. 



192 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807- 1892) was a native of 
Haverhill, Massachusetts, and through the whole of his 
long life was a resident of that State most of the time. 
It was not without misgivings that the Quaker youth 
abandoned his dreams of a purely literary career to 
champion an unpopular cause. The most craven apol- 
ogists of slavery came from the North, where the South- 
ern plea of necessity and self-interest did not obtain. 
With a public conscience so debased, mild expostula- 
tions were useless. It was only by persistent effort, 
week after week, month after month, year after year, 
that the bugle blasts of Whittier stirred the people 
from their moral lethargy. These trumpet calls were 
seconded by the ringing lyrics of Lowell and the bitter 
sarcasm of the first series of the "Biglow Papers." 
The cultured Longfellow added the influence of his 
name in his polished "Poems on Slavery." The spirit 
of song remained loyal to freedom when nearly every 
other voice had been stifled by the siren's plea of ex- 
pediency. But time has wrought its changes. " The 
hooting mob of yesterday " has in silent awe returned, 
and monuments are piled above the ashes of those so 
recently stoned. It was Whittier' s fate in a certain 
way to personify the heroic spirit of his age, and as the 
poetic exponent of that spirit, he will continue to be 
regarded long after his impassioned lyrics have ceased 
to be more than echoes of a bygone strife. 

It is in his folk-songs, his ballads and idyls of home, 
that Whittier rendered his greatest service to litera- 
ture. These date back to his earliest manhood, when 
duty and inclination contended for the mastery. 
Again and again would he put aside the trumpet for the 
pastoral pipe and prove that the gentle poet of domestic 
life was not entirely absorbed in the reformer and phi- 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 193 

lanthropist. His early Indian poems are of value only 
as tentative efforts. It was in his " Lays of my Home " 
(1843) that Whittier's genius revealed itself. The 
poems were few but representative, disclosing his char- 
acteristic qualities as writer of reminiscent, descriptive, 
legendary, tributary, and patriotic verse. Here also 
was the initial tribute to the stream of his fathers, the 
first of a series destined to make the Merrimac the 
classic river of New England. It was the most im- 
portant contribution yet made among us to a readable 
ballad literature. American traditions were appropri- 
ately sung and American democracy had found a voice 
in true poetry. Here was the same spirit that animated 
his whole life and work, a suggestion of that serene 
optimism which among great discouragements still led 
him to see the steady gain of man " step by step since 
time began." 

Hatred of tyranny was a passion with him. The 
Puritanism that would persecute witches and Quakers 
was as repellent to him as modern slavery. Traditions 
of cruelties practised upon members of his sect had 
been preserved in his family. These afterwards found 
expression in such poems as "The Exiles," "Cassandra 
Southwick," "In the Old South," "The King's Mis- 
sive, " How the Women went to Dover," and " Banished 
from Massachusetts. " His broadly catholic spirit again 
manifests itself in the picturesque ballads " Mary 
Garvin" and "Marguerite," whose heroines were made 
the victims of the anti-papist bigotry of the times. 

Whittier possessed the true secret of modern ballad- 
writing. He knew how to tell a story gracefully and 
simply. None of our poets has done so much to invest 
with a glamour of romance the coasts and hills of New 
England. Under his magic power the barren soil has 

13 



194 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

bloomed with a rich, if not luxuriant growth. The 
regions celebrated in his songs have already become 
storied ground. Lacking the creative genius of Haw- 
thorne, he has yet done more than any, save the author 
of "Twice Told Tales," to remove the stale reproach of 
an unromantic past. It does not in the least concern 
us that he has not always confined himself to strict and 
literal accuracy as to facts. The critical Gradgrinds 
may worry over the confusion as to names and exact 
dates. Maud MuUer, in spite of infelicitous rhymes, 
will not be displaced from the hearts of myriads of 
sympathetic admirers, however shadowy may have been 
her actual existence. Old Floyd Ireson will continue 
to make the streets of Marblehead notorious, though 
he was drawn in a dory instead of a cart, and the women 
took no part beyond furnishing the feathers to embel- 
lish his coat of tar. Thomas Macy as a hero and pro- 
tector of the oppressed exiles, fleeing before the wrath 
of the Puritans, is a much more attractive figure than 
the politic citizen, apologizing to the General Court for 
a simple act of humanity, and afterward leisurely sail- 
ing away to Nantucket to be rid of Puritan influences. 
All the discussion called forth by the publication of 
"The King's Missive" only goes to show how substan- 
tially correct was the poet's rendering of a familiar 
episode in history. It is much more to the purpose 
that a legend should be truly interesting than that it 
should be accurately true. If all the tales of Scottish 
minstrelsy, all the romances of the Rhine were stripped 
of their mythical embellishments, much of the world's 
best poetry would be sacrificed. A very narrow basis 
of fact suffices in the hands of genius as a foundation 
for a poetic ballad, and a sufficient basis is shown by 
official and other records for the Whittier legends. 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 195 

The failure of Whittier's early poem, " Moll Pitcher " 
(1832) was of value as a warning to the young writer. 
It was many years before he drew his inspiration from 
a similar theme, and then it was in an entirely different 
method. This was shown by the workmanship of four 
of his finest ballads: "Mabel Martin," published in 
1875 as an amplification of "The Witch's Daughter," 
written fifteen years before, "The Wreck of River- 
mouth," "The Changeling," and "The Witch of Wen- 
ham." Each one of these is in some form a reminis- 
cence of the witchcraft delusion in New England near 
the end of the seventeenth century. Though there is 
much that is depressing in the history of those days, 
there are certain aspects that shine out in pleasing relief 
against the dark background of fanaticism. These 
the poet has seized upon and retouched, giving us the 
gentler, the more humane side of humanity condemned 
to bear its heavy burdens in those trying times, — 

♦' Until from off its breast the land 
The haunting horror threw, 
And hatred born of ghastly dreams, 
To shame and pity grew." 

The subjects are handled with good taste and judg- 
ment, without the slightest attempt at melodramatic 
effects. In these, as in his Quaker ballads, the poet 
indulges in no cheap denunciations of the perpetrators 
of the wrongs. The sins of the Puritans he regards 
with pitying sadness, while — as witness the closing 
stanza in "The King's Missive" — ever ready to do 
justice to their nobler qualities. 

It is impossible to resist the fascination of these lays 
of our olden times. Their genuine local flavor is not 
in the least impaired by occasional anachronisms. The 
scenery of Eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire 



196 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

has gained an added charm through the associations 
suggested by these graphic yet simple tales. On the 
other hand, where the brighter side of Puritanism is 
reflected, as in "The Swan Song of Parson Avery," 
"John Underbill," and "The Prophecy of Samuel 
Sewall," the poet has depicted that American spirit of 
the earlier day which survived in the Abraham Daven- 
ports of a hundred years later. All these legends, 
as well as those in lighter vein, like " Skipper Ireson's 
Ride," "The Double Headed Snake of Newbury," and 
"Cobbler Keezar's Vision," are inseparably associated 
with our national traditions, Whittier was no artist, 
in an esthetic sense, but he has succeeded in idealizing 
our past and making the rigid Puritan era the romantic 
age of America. 

The verse of Whittier is far superior to his literary 
prose. The easy, unrestrained quality of the former 
contrasts strongly with the almost studied, self- 
conscious air that pervades his sketches and essays. 
Perhaps this is the reason that his " Barbara Frietchie," 
"Maud Muller," "Telling the Bees," "The Sisters," 
and "The Bay of Seven Islands" are so much more 
successful than his carefully written sketches in prose, 
which the present generation seems inclined to neglect. 
He was by nature first and last a poet, even though at 
one time he nearly sacrificed his birthright on the 
altar of philanthropy. On the other hand, it is his 
broadly sympathetic human nature that constitutes him 
a poet of the present as well as of the past. His bal- 
lads of modern life, like those just enumerated, show 
that the glamour of a legendary past is not indispen- 
sable to the spirit of poetry. His tributes to Dr. S, G. 
Howe and other philanthropists, indicate how deep was 
his conviction that the age of heroes and martyrs ceased 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 197 

not with that of chivalry and the crusades. " Life has 
its true natures yet, true, tender, brave, and sweet," as 
he expresses it. The record of our common experi- 
ence, if we will but observe it, is replete with acts of 
devotion and self-sacrifice. The unsung heroes to 
whom duty is more than life are to be found among all 
conditions of m.en. The poet needed not to go beyond 
the sea for a Santa Philomena, but could find among 
the sisters of charity in our own land the "female 
martyr " whose heroism equalled that of any canonized 
saint of tradition. In the humble and commonplace 
ranks of the railway service he can rescue from oblivion 
the name of Conductor Bradley as a type of countless 
unknown heroes of daily life, of whose self-sacrificing 
acts in the performance of duty the world hears and 
remembers but little. 

The poet's statement, "I would not exchange a 
decade of my own life for a century of the Middle 
Ages," has perhaps a wider application than originally 
intendec^. Whittier entered fully into the spirit of his 
own times, as any great man to be of force must do. 
He was quick to detect the poetic side in the march of 
current events. The passage of an Act of Congress, 
or a governor's message, would inspire his muse to the 
composition of "Lines" on apparently the most dis- 
couraging themes. Trivial as these transient produc- 
tions now seem, they represent the deepest feelings of 
a highly intense period in our history. Far more 
valuable, however, as permanent contributions, among 
his occasional verses, are those evincing the tender, 
restrained emotions of such pieces as " Chicago " and 
"The Centennial Hymn." It is the deeper, truer, and' 
more thoughtful tone of American life that finds expres;;^ 
sion in these utterances. 



198 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

The United States had been a nation for nearly a 
hundred years before the spirit of its rural life had found 
proper treatment in verse. It is true our rhymesters, 
since the days of Livingston's "Philosophic Solitude" 
(1747), had been giving us metrical platitudes on the 
beauties of rusticity, but we had no genuine idyl typi- 
cal of the American home. The best that we could 
offer were some genre pictures by A. B. Street, and 
such vacuous bleats as "The Old Oaken Bucket." 
New England farm life in Whittier's boyhood was 
not an ideal existence. It was one of toil, even of 
hardship, but by no means of penury. Mingled with 
much that was hard and crude was the spirit of rugged 
independence which went so far toward the constitution 
of American loyalty and partriotism. It had nothing 
in common with the peasantry of the old world, but 
was the result of generations of American life, a com- 
bination of nature and culture, of close-handed thrift 
and open-handed hospitality. The genius who could 
"paint the prospect from his door" could find a suffi- 
ciently new and untried field in 

" The common unrhymed poetry 
Of simple life and country ways." 

It was eminently fitting that the author of our best 
American ballads should undertake to illustrate the 
life that rendered possible the conditions underlying 
so much of the home poetry of his country. It was the 
subject that lay nearest his heart. The long political 
agitation in which he had been so prominent a figure 
had ended. The reform for which he had worked, 
pleaded, and sung had become an established fact. 
Peace was shedding her blessings over the land, and he 
who had sung of arms and heroes now essayed a 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 199 

gentler tone and gave us the truest eclogue of New 
England. 

The influence of Emerson is apparent in many of 
Whittier's lines. There was a vein of transcenden- 
talism in the Quaker poet that frequently appears in 
his meditative verse. Passages in his poem "Ques- 
tions of Life," for instance, read like echoes of Emer- 
son himself. An extract from the latter's " Snow 
Storm" is suggestively prefixed to Whittier's master- 
piece. Whittier, in his descriptive pieces, nowhere 
reaches the height attained by Emerson in this exqui- 
site fragment, and it was not necessary that he should. 
The great charm of " Snow-Bound " (1886) is its invest- 
ment of common objects with a poetic atmosphere. 

To write a poem of nearly eight hundred lines upon 
such a subject, and sustain the interest to the end, was 
in itself a triumph of literary art. The pictures are 
drawn with fidelity and delicacy, the descriptions are 
true to life, and suffusing it all is the serene atmos- 
phere of faith and hope which seems to exhale from all 
the poet's best inspirations. The reader instinctively 
turns again and again to catch a glimpse of this plain, 
old-fashioned American home of a type already obso- 
lescent in the shifting changes demanded by more 
modern methods of life and thought. The poet in- 
tended it as but a reminiscence, the revivifying of a 
homely past, and the appreciative response of the gen- 
eral public to the spirit of this idyl is the best tribute 
to its truthfulness to nature. 

As the shadows of age approached, the poet in- 
dulged more and more in his reminiscent vein, his 
thoughts reverting to the earliest beginnings of that 
struggle whose termination he had lived to witness. 
Before his fancy rose the scenes where under bluer 



200 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and more kindly skies than those that bend above New 
England's hills the earliest "Friends" had found a 
safe asylum. Here was a society of people still bound 
to the old world by tenderest ties, yet living amid most 
primitive surroundings. On the banks of the Dela- 
ware, v/here Penn had planted his sylvan empire and 
the laws of peace and friendship ruled, life, as regarded 
through the perspective of two centuries, seems the 
nearest realization of true pastoral simplicity to be 
found in our history. This inviting field had been 
strangely ignored by our poets, though perhaps none 
was so capable of doing it justice as Mr. Whittier. To 
this idyllic community, as related in a previous chapter, 
Francis Daniel Pastorius, the newly converted Quaker, 
German poet, scholar, and mystic, had come to make 
his abode. His Germantown home became a shrine for 
those needing aid and counsel. He was the guide and 
friend of all, Indians as well as white. Here he held 
his mimic court, dispensing charity to the needy, pro- 
tection to the weak and justice to the oppressed. Ten- 
derly and lovingly the bard recalls the life and aims of 
one who may be considered his prototype of two hun- 
dred years ago. As an historical sketch, the poem, lit 
up with touches of fancy and even humor, possesses a 
value apart from its literary qualities. 

Seven years after the publication of Longfellow's 
first book of verse, the first edition of Whittier's 
"Voices of Freedom " appeared at Philadelphia. These 
two volumes of "Voices" naturally challenge compar- 
ison. The one, replete with melodious rhythm, re- 
peated the lessons learned from the wisdom and culture 
of the past, and was appropriately enough entitled 
" Voices of the Night. " The other, instinct with the 
fire of Americanism, gave utterance to the deepest 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 201 

feelings of the human heart. To the public feeling of 
the time, "Voices of the Night" were more acceptable 
than " Voices of Freedom. " We were slow to appre- 
ciate the latter, perhaps because they were too Ameri- 
can — they related to matters too close at home for us 
so long accustomed to imitative literature. The poet's 
intense Americanism, moreover, shocked refined sensi- 
bilites long inured to transatlantic standards. We 
were not sure but that Americanism implied a certain 
degree of plebeianism, or was at best suggestive of 
Dwight and Barlow. Longfellow profited by this feel- 
ing, for it was not until his genius had commanded 
recognition from his method of handling conventional 
themes that he ventured upon home subjects in a man- 
ner worthy of his talents. With the growth of the 
nation, independence of judgment asserted itself. We 
began to realize what Americanism in literature really 
was, — that it meant something more than the trans- 
planting of English thought on American soil. The 
intellect of the country typified by Emerson was in 
revolt against conventionalism. Whittier was the 
native expression of an aroused conscience in literature. 
He was the moral, as Emerson was the intellectual, 
champion of Americanism. 

In his home ballads and idyls Whittier has caught 
the true spirit, not of the fleeting hour, but of human 
nature itself. He has infused our common country life 
with the glow and glamour of a poetic atmosphere. We 
acknowledge his transparent faults, his bad rhymes, 
false quantities, and uncertain grammar. We must 
accept without wincing his favorite pronunciation of 
been. His formal imperfections are part of his indi- 
viduality, for which at this late day an apology would 
be superfluous. He was not an American Beranger or 



202 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

a Yankee Burns, but simply Whittier, a term that now 
stands for the embodiment of loyalty in its most com- 
prehensive sense; and not of loyalty alone, but of 
courage to maintain convictions in the face of fearful 
odds, to strike at the shackles of conventionalism as 
well as slavery, and to infuse in the breasts of his coun- 
trymen a patriotism that is purer and manlier for his 
having sung. 

There was an episode in our literary history worthy 
of comm.ent while discussing the poetry descriptive 
of American life. The aspirations toward high ideals 
among the intellectual classes in New England that 
found expression in the pages of "The Dial " and mate- 
rialized in the Brook Farm experiment, extended to 
those in humble walks of life. The female operatives 
in the mills of Lowell city were remarkable for a high 
order of intelligence. They established what is gen- 
erally regarded as the first, if not the only, instance of 
a purely literary magazine controlled by a purely 
industrial community. The " Lowell Offering " was 
founded in 1841 and lasted for several years, Its con- 
tributors were confined exclusively to the female mill 
operatives. The reader will at once recall Mr. Dick- 
ens's admiration of the intelligence of these working- 
girls, who, after twelve hours of tedious labor in the 
mills every day, could still find time and inclination 
for music and literature, and whose literary exponent 
he compares advantageously with a great many Eng- 
lish annuals. A volume of extracts from the " Offer- 
ing" was published by its editor. Miss Farley, in 
1847, and in 1849 Charles Knight published in London 
another selection from its pages, entitled " Mind among 
the Spindles." 

Among the brightest contributors to this periodical 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 203 

was Miss Lucy Larcom (1826-1893), a native of Beverly, 
Massachusetts, and daughter of a sea captain, whose 
death left her dependent on her own resources while still 
a young girl. Miss Larcom represented the feminine 
side, as Whittier the masculine side, of Americanism 
in literature. The ability displayed in her writings in 
the " Offering " attracted the attention of Mr. Whittier, 
who from that time became her friend and adviser. 
The influence of the gentle master is apparent through- 
out her poetry. The regions celebrated by Whittier 
reappear in Miss Larcom' s verse in passages worthy of 
the elder singer. None of our female poets has sung 
so well of home themes. If Beverly Shore has not 
become so classic as Sudbury town or Hampton Beach, 
it is not the fault of an appreciative minstrel. The 
"romantic fancies " which she weaves into her verse are 
for the most part tales of the sea, tenderly and patheti- 
cally rendered, with glimpses of the poet's child life by 
the ocean. They are enlivened by light touches of 
humor in the reminiscent sketches, as in the lines on 
the psalm-singing proclivities of the primitive New 
Englanders. In her enthusiasm for the days that are 
gone, the poet seems to forget that the very conditions 
whose desuetude she so charmingly regrets were 
effected only in the teeth of strenuous opposition from 
orthodox Puritans, and after bitter heart burnings and 
rebellions. Modern church music, with all its acces- 
sories, is no greater innovation, when compared with 
that of two or three generations ago than was the in- 
troduction of the bass viol and flute as compared with 
renditions of "Sternhold and Hopkins" and the "Bay 
Psalm Book." This consideration, however, need not 
deter us from admiring the poetry of the lyric, "The 
Old Hymns," which follows the reflections on psalm- 



204 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

singing. No unprejudiced reader will begrudge the 
tribute to the Puritans so poetically rendered in the 
opening lines of this lyric. 

When in 1857 the poem "Bitter-Sweet" was pub- 
lished by Dr. Josiah G. Holland (1819-1881), it 
appeared as if a notable addition had been made to the 
literature of American life. The poem was suggestive 
of Whittier, Longfellow, and Emerson combined, with- 
out being an echo of either one. In the opening pas- 
sages there were strong scenes of New England life, 
such as the old-fashioned homestead, with its family 
reunion at Thanksgiving. The people were natural 
flesh and blood creatures, of a more cultured class, 
perhaps, than those described in "Snow-Bound." The 
verse is pure and lucid, and the underlying doctrine 
that evil is an essential part of the divine plan, clearly 
and even ostentatiously set forth. The hero, it is true, 
is a prig, whose sky-soaring instincts would not descend 
to explanation which would have relieved his devoted 
wife of much of her suffering. Certain parts also 
might have been omitted without in the least affecting 
the unity of the work. But prolixity had so long been 
the bane of our minor singers that it might well be 
condoned in this instance where there was so much of 
merit. 

The promise indicated in " Bitter-Sweet " was not ful- 
filled in the author's later works. "Kathrina," even 
'■more than its predecessor, is overweighted with didac- 
ticism. To that large class whose tastes are gratified 
with a liberal mixture of Tupperism, it proved a reve- 
lation, as shown by the immense sale. The impression 
after reading it is one of mild wonder that the author 
should venture to consume several thousand lines of 
blank verse to prove that religion is essential to hap- 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 205 

piness. All through "Bitter-Sweet" and "Kathrina" 
the intent is disagreeably obtrusive to write a moral 
poem. The diction is frequently disfigured with man- 
nerisms, petty affectations, and strained conceits. As 
long as the author confines himself to simple country 
life in the Connecticut valley his descriptions are 
graphic and poetic, but when he attempts to portray 
metropolitan life, he becomes hopelessly submerged in 
the bathetic. In "The Mistress of the Manse" there 
are fewer offences against good taste, and less a ten- 
dency to sermonizing. It is decidedly among the best 
narrative poems of the Civil War. A tender, grave, 
and patriotic spirit characterizes the work throughout. 
It failed of the popular success attained by the earlier 
poems, perhaps because there was not enough of preach- 
ing to satisfy the poet's former admirers, and not enough 
of poetry to please those of a more critical judgment. 

Dr. Holland was, above all, a moralist. As shown 
in his amiably didactic essays, he believed in the appli- 
cation of a true and healthy moral tone to practical 
affairs of life. His novels are pure, strong delinea- 
tions of American character, exhibiting the same 
qualities that gained popular success for his verse. 
Considered as a poet in the broadest sense, he prob- 
ably would not rise above the third class of American 
singers. In his chosen field as chronicler of the sim- 
ple annals of rural homes, he easily takes his place 
among our poets of the second if not the first rank. 
His influence was always in favor of what he conceived 
to be the best. Though pre-eminently the poet of the 
commonplace, it was a commonplace that was idealized 
and beautified by much that is poetic in every-day 
American life. 

For a domestic nation, our poetry of home life had 



2o6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

a remarkably belated beginning, and strangely enough 
it arose west of the Ohio almost as early as in New 
England. In New York, aside from the efforts of 
Street and the " Knickerbocker writers " already alluded 
to, no local poetry issued worthy of notice. Better 
indications came from what was then "the West." 
William Davis Gallagher (1808-1894), one of the earli- 
est singers from the Mississippi valley, began publish- 
ing his books of verse when twenty-seven years old, 
and several years after he had passed his three score 
and ten was still publishing, regardless of public in- 
difference. His little poems, "The Laborer," "Con- 
servatism," and "Truth and Freedom," have the true 
American ring, but much better are his songs of the 
pioneer days in the West. In his old age he gave us 
"Miami Woods and other Poems." While he never 
wrote a great poem, he did good work in giving voice 
to the poetic side of pioneer life in a region which later 
was to give us a Piatt, a Venable, and a Riley. 

Another singer in whom the middle West was to find 
a sympathetic interpreter was Benjamin F. Taylor 
( 1 819-1887), poet, lecturer, and war correspondent. 
The reference by a writer in the London "Times " to 
Taylor as the American Goldsmith was anything but 
beneficial to the Chicago poet. He early sang of the 
beauties of country life, such as "The Old Barn," 
husking, milking time, country sleighing, and other 
topics that have so long formed the stock in trade of the 
rustic bard. Later he struck a more original vein and 
wrote some excellent lines on Old Fort Dearborn 
and Chicago, Wisconsin, the Tennessee, the prairies, 
and other features of the middle West. His best 
poems, because they are his own, are those relating to 
American enterprise. If the locomotive is the mate- 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 207 

rial symbol of American enterprise, no poet of recent 
American life can afford to ignore its suggestions. 
Whittier,^ Whitman, and Bret Harte have caught some 
of the picturesque attributes of the American railway- 
service, but none has so sympathetically sung of its 
material triumphs as has the author of " The Overland 
Train." It is not claimed that in this poem Taylor 
has made the most of his subject, but it is only just to 
concede to him, in this and in "The Flying Heralds" 
and "Fire and Water," the credit of illustrating how 
far such subjects adapt themselves to the exigencies of 
verse. 

The best home literature of the West is of too recent 
a date for treatment in this chapter. 

The literary development of the " Old South " was 
necessarily retarded. The social life of that section was 
antagonistic to a taste, for higher native literature. 
Feudalism and slavery were deleterious in their effects 
upon the master as well as the slave. It is true, as 
early as 1777 James McClurg, with the assistance of 
Judge St. George Tucker, wrote some society verses 
entitled, "The Belles of Williamsburgh," but so far as 
internal evidence goes, the " Belles " referred to might 
have been the denizens of any English town as well as 
of the provincial capital of Virginia. In fact, there 
was little in the home life of the South for two genera- 
tions after the Revolution to encourage devotion to the 
finer graces. It was indeed a physically robust and 
wholesome out-of-door life that its gentry led, of which 
hunting and horse-racing formed a very considerable 
portion. The earliest approximation to home poetry 
was from William Crafts (1787-1826) of Charleston, 
who celebrated the sporting tendencies of his city in 
his effort called "The Raciad." Crafts was the 



2o8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

author also of a poem on "Sullivan's Island," and of 
some satirical sketches. Later appeared William J. 
Grayson (i 788-1 863), the author of several volumes, 
all now forgotten, save his idyllic poem "The Hireling 
and the Slave" (1856), designed to show the superior 
condition of the unpaid negro slave to that of the hire- 
ling who works for pay. Though William Gilmore 
Simms (i 806-1 870) published several volumes of verse, 
including some prosy dramas, they are, with the excep- 
tion of a few descriptive passages, as completely ignored 
by the general reader as are the works of Crafts and 
Grayson. 

Though little poetry of value was produced at the 
South before the war, many of the best and most orig- 
inal American songs had reference to Southern life. 
However humiliating the confession, negro minstrelsy 
was the earliest approach to an indigenous American 
drama. There were even some hopeful enough to 
descry in the song and dance of these performances the 
origin of a national comedy, as the Plautian dramas 
are traceable to the rude medley of the Etrurian songs 
and dances of an earlier age. In 1830 George W. 
Dixon first appeared as a negro minstrel at Albany. A 
little later, Thomas D. Rice was successful in a similar 
role at Pittsburgh. Under Rice's management the 
buffoonery of Dixon was exalted to something like art. 
In 1842 Edwin P. Christy, at Buffalo, began a career 
that was soon to realize a fortune for him. It was in 
that year that Stephen C. Foster (1825-1864) composed 
his "Uncle Ned" and "O Susannah," to the great 
profit of the minstrel troupes. Foster was born in 
Pennsylvania, and spent most of his life at the North. 
He was a cultivated artist and musician, writing his 
songs to suit the airs that he had already composed. 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 209 

and is still remembered as the author of " Old Folks 
at Home," "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground," Old 
Black Jo^," "My Old Kentucky Home," and many 
others similar. The plantation songs of Foster showed 
a marked advance over the " Coal Black Rose " and 
" Zip Coon " of Dixon and the "Jim Crow " and " Lucy 
Long" of Rice. They possess sentiment without 
mawkishness and humor without coarseness ; and even 
now, when the conditions they symbolize have long 
since passed away, bid fair to outlast in popular favor 
their author's more sentimental efforts, like "Come 
where my Love lies dreaming." 

Aside from a few lyrics of Whittier, O'Hara, and 
Hoffman, the Mexican war inspired but one master- 
piece. The first series of the " Biglow Papers " (1846- 
1848) is one of the few modern satiric poems destined 
to live. During the Civil War, however, the highly 
wrought feelings on both sides naturally found vent in 
strongly emotional verse. A comparison of the Revo- 
lutionary poetry with that of our Civil War is sufficient 
to indicate how far the literary development of the 
country had kept pace with its material growth. A re- 
spectable list might be made of those whose poetic 
reputation rests on the patriotic verse of this period. 
When we reflect that all our verse writers then living, 
great and small, gave expression to their sentiments, 
some estimate may be formed of the quantity and qual- 
ity of our poetic literature during those memorable 
years. 

It is impossible to exaggerate the benefits of a pure 
home literature that idealizes and spiritualizes the 
commonplaces of our every-day lives. Americans are 
better citizens to-day for having " Snow-Bound. " The 
national conscience is purer for the existence of 

14 



2IO HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

"Voices of Freedom," the "Biglow Papers," and "The 
Old Folks at Home." While we glory in the state- 
ment that ours is a country of the future, loyalty to 
native land is in no way weakened by the accumula- 
tions of a storied past. The ballads and idyls of Whit- 
tier and Longfellow, the sketches and tales of Irving 
and Hawthorne, have invested portions of our country 
with a legendary lore already inseparable from their 
surroundings. A land is no less dear to its inhabitants 
for being interesting. 

As might be expected in the home literature of a 
democracy, the humanitarian element is conspicuous. 
It is the broadly sympathetic humanity of Whittier, as 
we have already noted, that makes him the poet of the 
people. Minor singers who have trod beside him or in 
his footsteps manifest the same trait in a less degree. 
Our best home ballads have not so much to do with the 
heroism of the battlefield as with the more unobtrusive 
virtues of patience, self-sacrifice, and moral courage. 
Love of Nature is another characteristic of these idyls 
and ballads of American life. Some of the most 
imaginative passages are descriptive of the influence of 
the forest, the mountains, and the sea. 

Another pleasing feature of this verse is its purity. 
There is not a narrative poem, long or short, by any 
of our best singers that is not inspired by a worthy pur- 
pose, by some high ideal in life. It is true, our poets 
are not always fortunate in their manner of dealing 
with the subject. The tendency to moralize has re- 
sulted in a didacticism disagreeably apparent. The 
artistic effect, of course, is weakened. A reader natu- 
rally resents being treated to a sermon when he seeks 
a song. This fault has been the bane of American 
verse from the days of the Puritans. But perhaps the 



POEMS OF NATURE AND AMERICAN LIFE 211 

most distinguishing characteristic of this class of poetry 
is its depth of sentiment. In some respects Americans 
are the niost sentimental people on earth. In our most 
popular war songs, as a foreigner once observed, the 
mother is the favorite subject. Whittier himself un- 
consciously illustrated this feeling when he made the 
mother a more prominent figure than the father in that 
typical household. Perhaps the most palpable illustra- 
tion ot American sentimentalism is the popularity of 
Memorial Day throughout the country. That a whole 
nation so constantly accused of undue commercialism 
should habitually turn aside from its regular pursuits 
to honor the memory of those long dead, shows how 
profound are the tenderer feelings below all the prac- 
tical, matter-of-fact exteriors. This sentimentalism, 
as a national trait, is a patent fact which seems to be 
ignored by those writers on both sides of the Atlantic 
who insist that the "Americanism" of any of our 
literary products is to be judged in proportion to its 
rowdiness. 

We were a long time in ridding ourselves of the im- 
pression that no poetry could be distinctively American 
— could "smack the soil," as the phrase went — with- 
out a due admixture of war paint and feathers. All 
such notions, happily, have long since been abandoned. 
The impossible Indian of romance has been relegated 
to his proper sphere. There are plenty of elements of 
poetry in our plain American lives, in our accomplish- 
ments in the past and aspirations for the future. 
American life as reflected in its verse offers one of the 
most potent triumphs of modern democracy. It is the 
life of a plain, but straightforward, high-minded com- 
monalty, indifferent to social distinctions, filled with 
love of home and country, but sufficiently self-assertive 



212 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

to preserve its independence, even at the risk of in- 
curring the charge of provincialism. True American- 
ism is the higher development of Anglo-Saxonism in 
its new environment. Any other statement is contrary 
to nature and truth. 



CHAPTER XI 

IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 

I 839-1 870 

IN the career of Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) 
may be witnessed the first notable influence upon 
literature by our native writers. Longfellow's early 
poems and prose show decidedly the examples of Bryant 
and Irving, as he himself candidly admitted. His 
first volume of original verse, "Voices of the Night," 
was published at Cambridge in 1839. Externally, the 
book was deemed a triumph of artistic skill of the time; 
internally, it was unprecedented in our literature for 
its lyrical beauty. But it also marked the growth of 
the poet. It is in no sense of disparagement that Long- 
fellow is referred to as a poet of culture. Like many 
a rare product, his genius required careful cultivation 
before it could blossom into anything like perfection. 
There is a wide range between the "Earlier Poems," 
even those deemed worth preserving, and maturer work, 
like "The Light of Stars" and "Footsteps of Angels." 
German literature wrought its first influence upon 
American verse in " Flowers " and " The Beleaguered 
City." 

Whatever its faults, this little volume contained the 
elements of those later poems that have charmed count- 
less readers throughout the world. Its almost perfect 
versification, its spirit of tenderness and hope, of resig- 
nation and fortitude, its unobtrusive but natural didac- 



214 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

ticism, foreshadowed its author's present rank in the 
world of letters. Henceforth he was certain of his 
audience, whatever he might offer. His chief danger 
was that his graceful facility of versification would 
lead him to take advantage of the hospitable welcome 
which the reading public was ever ready to extend. 
That this hospitality was never abused is not the least 
among his merits. 

The "Americanism" manifested in the "Voices" 
was of the most shadowy character. Didacticism, 
which had been a characteristic of American verse from 
the days of the Puritans, was indeed present, but so 
subordinate to the sense of beauty as not to seem out 
of place. The most conspicuous national trait was the 
spirit of hopefulness, the incentive to action. The 
local coloring of some of the earlier poems was too 
pallid and imitative to deserve notice. When " Ballads 
and Other Poems " appeared in 1841, the national flavor 
of "The Skeleton in Armor" and "Wreck of the Hes- 
perus " was like a tonic. Here were American themes 
treated in an unhackneyed manner; while in "The 
Village Blacksmith " and " Excelsior " the spirit of 
" Americanism " was obvious. The new volume showed 
that the young singer was already prepared to expand 
his wings for higher and steadier flights. 

Longfellow had the artist's disdain of literal scien- 
tific truth or historical accuracy. The old tower at 
Newport enabled him freely to exercise his fancy, 
though with a perfectly justifiable poetic license. He 
could unblushingly write of the "Occultation of 
Orion," and even seek to justify the expression. The 
plain Moravian church of an obscure Pennsylvania set- 
tlement was adorned with all the esthetic equipments 
of a Roman Catholic chapel. " Glimmering tapers shed 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 215 

faint light on the cowled head." The burning censer 
swung before the altar, and in the "dim mysterious 
aisle" is heard "the nuns' sweet hymn." Worst of 
all, Count Pulaski is accused of wearing as a " martial 
cloak and shroud " a piece of silk twenty inches square, 
made to be borne on the end of a lance. All these 
lyrics, however, even the " Psalm of Life " and " Excel- 
sior," appealed to a world-wide constituency that was 
sympathetic and not critical, and we gratefully accept 
the gentle lesson of patience, fortitude, and aspiration, 
knowing full well how in his life the singer exemplified 
his own exhortation, — 

" Oh, fear not in a world like this, 
And thou shalt know ere long, 
Know how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong." 

Within five years the poet had published four volumes 
of his verse. In 1845 he edited a little collection of 
poems, called "The Waif," and in the same year ren- 
dered his important contribution to general literature, 
" The Poets and Poetry of Europe." In the following 
year appeared his fifth volume of original work, " The 
Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems," showing unmis- 
takable growth of the poet's powers. Longfellow had 
a proper contempt for artificial nationalism. He could 
sing as sympathetically of Bruges or of Nuremberg, of 
Cadenabbia or Amalfi, as of the river Charles or his 
native town by the sea. The spirit of Americanism was 
evident in this last volume, in the tributes to the dignity 
of labor, the distaste for war, hatred of oppression and 
confidence in the future that appeared respectively in 
"Nuremberg," "The Arsenal at Springfield," "The 
Norman Baron," and " To a Child," — to say nothing of 
the local coloring in "The Old Clock on the Stairs," 



2i6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and the moderately successful hexameters in " To the 
Driving Cloud." The volume was also noteworthy as 
containing one of his most brilliant poetic conceptions, 
" The Occultation of Orion," which, in spite of its 
unfortunate title, deserves a place among the rarest 
works of imaginative poetry in all literature. 

The deportation of the Acadians was an event of a 
sufficiently distant past (and of a still remoter civiliza- 
tion) to justify poetic treatment. It was one of those 
historic incidents that, regardless of original merits, 
readily enlist human sympathies on the weaker side. 
Much of the suffering caused by the separation of 
families and their frequent reduction to a condition little 
better than slavery was the result doubtless of accident 
rather than of design. But whether or not Mr. Bancroft 
and other historians are warranted in referring to the 
sorrows of the Acadians as wantonly inflicted, it is 
certain that the punishment was out of all proportion 
to the offences charged. From that fateful morning of 
September Fifth, 1755, when all the men of Grand Prd 
were inveigled into their little parish church by the 
British authorities, and after four days' imprisonment 
released only to be dispersed throughout the world, 
down to revolutionary times, these harmless and gentle 
people were made to feel that there is no hatred so bitter 
as that of race-prejudice, no cruelty so blind as that of 
religious bigotry. The persecutions inflicted by the 
English-Americans in Pennsylvania and New England 
upon these unhappy exiles are matters of historic record. 
The poet therefore could not have selected a theme in 
its suggestions more humiliating to our national vanity. 
It is worthy of remark that in our most celebrated 
American idyl, composed by a descendant of the pope- 
hating Pilgrims, the most attractive characters are 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 217 

Roman Catholics, while the Protestant New Englanders, 
though only a brief glimpse is given of them in the early- 
part of the poem, are presented in anything but an 
enviable light. Moreover, while the South, the West, 
and the Middle States contribute to form the back- 
grounds for the scenery, the territory of New England 
is ignored. Certainly nothing can be conceived more 
repugnant to the canons of "Americanism" as early 
exemplified in the works of the post-revolutionary bards 
of Connecticut. Besides Mr. Longfellow's poem, the 
incident of the Acadian exile inspired one of Mr. 
Whittier's most pathetic ballads, as well as an exquisite 
prose sketch by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

It was on the 24th of October, 1839, that Hawthorne 
entered in his note book the suggestion of Mr. Connolly 
concerning the Acadian lovers who had been separated 
on their intended wedding-day, to be, after many wan- 
derings, re-united only at the death-bed of one of them. 
At the time that Hawthorne made the entry, he was 
engaged upon his juvenile historical essays for " Grand- 
father's Chair." The sketch of the Acadian exiles in 
the second part of the work, originally concluded with 
the sentence, " Methinks, if I were an American poet, 
I would choose Acadia for the subject of my song." 
This was eight years before the appearance of " Evan- 
geline." Hawthorne neglected to write a romance on 
the subject, waiving his right in favor of the poet. In 
view of Hawthorne's own statements on the subject, 
and his admiration of the poem, it is strange to read 
in a distinguished writer's life of Longfellow, that 
Hawthorne saw nothing in the legend ; that, true to the 
strange taste of Hawthorne's " miasmatic conscience," 
he " felt the want of a sin to study in the story, so 
would have none of it; " that "with Acadia Hawthorne 



2i8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

would have nothing to do on any terms." ^ Hawthorne's 
own letters, note-books, and writings show how power- 
fully the tradition did appeal to his fancy. Mr. Lathrop's 
explanation seems the most rational, namely, that Haw- 
thorne felt profoundly grateful to the poet for the latter's 
kindly notice of the " Twice Told Tales " in the " North 
American Review;" that Hawthorne, "on seeing how 
much the Evangeline anecdote struck his friend the 
poet, resolved to yield it up at once, without betraying 
any intention he may have had of utilizing it himself," ^ 
Hawthorne certainly had no reason to repent of his 
generosity, and no one rejoiced more heartily in Mr. 
Longfellow's success. 

Longfellow, more than any other American poet, 
studied the technique of his art. His comprehension 
of the laws of versification was so thorough that his 
selections of appropriate meters came to him as by 
instinct. The almost uniform failure of writers of 
English verse in dactylic hexameter might well have 
deterred him from any prolonged effort. His own 
attempts in that meter up to that time, it must be 
confessed, were not especially successful. His resolu- 
tion to adopt this form was made only after careful 
deliberation. As might have been expected, such an 
innovation (for innovation it certainly was) called forth 
a storm of criticism. Superficial critics, primed with 
laws of classical prosody, readily found flaws to pick. 
The novelty of its application startled the conservatives, 
who could not or would not discriminate between the 
essential principles which distinguish English from 

1 Prof. E. S. Robertson's "Life of Longfellow," "Great Writers" 
Series, London, 1887. 

2 Introductory Note to "Grandfather's Chair" Vol. IV. Riverside 
ed. Hawthorne's Works. 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 219 

ancient classical prosody. It is true the feet in Long- 
fellow's verse were not the spondees and dactyls of 
Homer and Virgil, for the simple reason that English 
accentuation bears little resemblance to classical quan- 
tity. Yet these differed from their classical prototypes 
no more in degree than do the iambics of Milton, Spenser, 
and Pope from the iambics of the Greek and Latin 
dramatists. The German poets had proved its adapta- 
bility to their language. Take for instance the opening 
lines of Goethe's " Hermann und Dorothea : " 

" Hab ich den Markt und die Strassen doch nie so einsam gesehen, 
1st doch die Stadt wie gekehrt ! wie ausgestorben ! Nicht funfzig 
Daucht mir blieben zuriick von alien unsern Bewohnern." 

Here the laws of classical versification are as openly 
defied as in the work of the American poet, nor can it 
be claimed that these lines are more melodious to the 
ear than the opening lines of " Evangehne," — ■ 

" This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the 

hemlocks, 
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the 

twilight. 
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic." 

Longfellow, in his artistic treatment of the meter, 
proved his good judgment in its selection as thoroughly 
as Bryant showed his good judgment in its rejection in 
favor of one that he was most capable of handling. 
The instant popularity of "Evangeline" demonstrated 
that the form commended itself to the masses as well 
as to the cultured few, and that previous failures were 
due to unskilfulness in use rather than to any inherent 
obstacles in the form itself. In the hands of an unskilful 
versifier nothing can be more wretched. When con- 
trolled by a master, nothing can be more melodious. 



220 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

It is the rhythm of passion, emotion, and delicate fancy, 
and therefore, in this instance, best adapted to the poet's 
conception of his theme. There are, it is true, occasional 
lines that jar on the reader, and fail to " scan themselves " 
on first perusal, just as there are discordant and irregular 
lines in almost any standard work in English pentameter. 
Owing to the structure of the English language, trochaics 
are interchangeable with spondees ; a substitution, under 
the laws of English scansion perfectly legitimate, just as 
two unaccented syllables are frequently made to pass 
for an iambic foot in our heroic verse. The long roll 
of the hexameter line, its susceptibility to constant 
variety in the first four feet and uniformity in the last 
two, and its changing caesural, give it a rhythm pecu- 
liarly adapted to the sentiment of the poem. The 
passage in the second part relating to the mocking- 
bird's song, which its author by way of experiment 
recast into rhymed iambics, is a sufficient argument 
in favor of the hexameter. 

In view of the estimation in which American verse 
had generally been held in the mother-country, it was 
no slight tribute to Longfellow's poem that its success 
should have suggested the form of Clough's "Bothie" 
and Kingsley's "Andromeda." While the revived 
English hexameter commended itself to Kingsley, 
Glough, Whewell, and Freiligrath abroad, and to Fel- 
ton. Holmes, and others in America, Poe could see 
nothing in it at all commendable. His savage on- 
slaughts elicited no reply from Longfellow further than 
the entry in his diary, — 

" In Hexameter sings serenely a Harvard Professor; 
In Pentameter him damns censorious Poe." 

That the poem itself appealed to universal human 
nature was evidenced by the numerous translations in 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 221 

German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Italian, 
Portuguese, Spanish, and Polish, to say nothing of the 
countless unauthorized English reprints. 

The poem is thoroughly American in something far 
deeper than a merely geographical sense. Its broad 
humanity, its spirit of toleration, and its pictures of 
democratic simplicity are suggestive of an ideal repub- 
licanism, though nothing could have been more alien 
to the author's purpose than to idealize the genius of 
democracy. It was an elaboration of the messages 
whispered to the singer in his younger days by the 
"Voices of the Night." The poet nowhere indulges in 
cheap denunciation of the wrongs of which he sings. 
He has given us simply the esthetic side, but in colors 
so true that while apparently appealing to the sense of 
the beautiful, they stir the emotions far more deeply 
than would the most violent invective. The perfection 
of his art is shown in the impression left upon the 
reader in spite of the restrained and tender tone of the 
narrative itself. It is no wonder that the gentle Whit- 
tier at his first perusal of the poem should have been 
moved to the bitter comment, "The true history of the 
Puritans of New England has yet to be written." 

"Evangeline" was published October 30, 1847, one 
of the decisive dates in the history of American lit- 
erature. It was the first narrative poem of considerable 
length by an American showing genuine creative power. 
Its purity of diction and elevated style, its beauties of 
description, its tenderness, pathos, and simplicity, its 
similes and metaphors at once true, poetic, and apt, 
its frequent passages betokening imaginative power, 
all embodied in a form unconventional 5'^et peculiarly 
appropriate, stamped it as a new and individual crea- 
tion. It was the highest inspiration in idyllic poetry 



222 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

produced in America. The impression left by a peru- 
sal of the poem is like that attributed to the passing of 
its heroine. It " seemed like the ceasing of exquisite 
music." American literature had proved its right to 
recognition, and in at least this one instance the world 
at large has not been slow to bear tribute of admiration. 

As Goethe's idyl suggested the metrical form of 
"Evangeline," so Schiller's "Lay of the Bell" sug- 
gested the form of "The Building of the Ship." 
Longfellow's work, while not exhibiting the strength 
and force of its prototype, has the advantage of a per- 
manent interest not attaching to the local and tempo- 
rary incidents of the German work. Combining the 
features of the lyric, the ballad, and the idyl, it became 
at once a popular favorite and made its author the 
poet of the hustings as well as the drawing-room. Its 
patriotic tone stirred the hearts of the people where 
the more polished poems on slavery had failed. 

The charge of being an exotic, though perhaps true 
when preferred by Margaret Fuller against Longfellow, 
was sufficiently refuted in his later career. His Euro- 
pean travels and European culture only intensified his 
loyalty to native land. There is no narrative poem of 
Puritanism comparable to "The Courtship of Miles 
Standish." It matters little how far the incidents of 
the poem depart from strict historic truth. The pretty 
wedding scene, with the rigors of Puritanism toned 
down by the refining art of the poet, commends itself 
as the most attractive idyllic sketch of early Puritanism 
in verse. "Elizabeth," as a poem, is so far below 
either of what may be called its companion pieces as 
to deserve mention by way of contrast only. Evange- 
line attracts by the pathos of her fate, Priscilla by her 
woman's strength and weakness. Each has been 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 223 

enshrined among the ideals of song in the hearts of the 
people, and each seems destined so to remain in spite 
of recent yeritists and realists. 

For more than a century, as we have seen, American 
verse writers had been vainly endeavoring to throw the 
glamour of romance about the American Indian. The 
short poems of Freneau, and later of Bryant and 
Lowell, were the only approximations to success. 
Whittier himself has acknowledged the failure of his 
early attempts in that direction. Longfellow's methods 
were at once original and appropriate. He took the 
Indian of nature, but gave us simply the aboriginal 
myths and legends, idealized in a refined poetic imag- 
ination. In adopting the trochaic metre of the Finnish 
runes of "Kalevala," the poet gave another proof of 
his excellent discrimination in the matter of metrical 
form. No setting more suitable could have been chosen 
for these simple legends wafted down from the child- 
hood of a race. It was no fault of Longfellow that 
some of these primitive myths of our aborigines bore a 
striking resemblance to those of an almost equally bar- 
barous people of the Old World. The poet took them 
as he found them recorded by writers who had proba- 
bly never heard of "Kalevala." He used a legitimate 
poetic license in his treatment of the theme, attribut- 
ing to his hero certain legendary episodes, with which 
Hiawatha was not actually identified in the original 
traditions, but which with perfect propriety might be 
accredited to him. Oral traditions among an ignorant 
race must necessarily be altogether vague, indefinite, 
and even conflicting. That the Algonquin Manabozho 
should be confounded with the Hiawatha of the Iro- 
quois is not at all remarkable. If the identity of the 
two was confused in the minds of the Indians them- 



224 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

selves, no criticism can attach to the poet for perpetu- 
ating that confusion. Yet it seems a little strange that 
Longfellow should so far ignore the achievement 
which in the minds of the Iroquois was the crowning 
glory of their hero's career. As the alleged founder of 
the Iroquois league of six nations, the effect of Hia- 
watha's influence reaches down to historic times. This 
is only remotely suggested in the injunctions of Gitche 
Manito, the mighty, as narrated in the first canto. 

Censorious critics found abundant opportunity to 
exercise their wits in parodying and paraphrasing this 
"Indian Edda. " Its meter was even more unusual in 
English literature than that of "Evangeline." Long- 
fellow had been familiar with the Finnish epic long 
before he adopted its form. The inherent common 
features of the two poems are such as characterize many 
primitive literatures. Parallelism and alliteration are 
natural to an early stage of literary development. To 
accuse Longfellow, therefore, of imitation, on account 
of form or even methods of expression, is the most 
puerile kind of criticism, which may with equal justice 
be applied to the greatest ancient and modern poets. 

If in the metrical form of " Evangeline " the poet had 
ignored conventionalism, in that of Hiawatha he actu- 
ally defied it. Routine critics, who never can and 
never will endure anything not sanctioned by age and 
usage, stood aghast at the poet's temerity. Here 
was an American writer who had actually offered some- 
thing without precedent in English literature. The 
very novelty of the poem subjected it to criticism, 
ridicule, and even abuse. A Boston critic sagely de- 
clared, " It contains nothing so precious as the golden 
time which would be lost in the reading of it." But 
people persisted in reading it. Within less than four 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 225 

weeks from its publication ten thousand copies had 
been sold in this country alone. There were four 
translation^ in German, besides those in French, 
Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Italian, and Polish, and an 
attempted rendition in Latin. Parodies and criticisms 
have long since been forgotten, but the poem itself, as 
the nearest approach to an American epic, continues 
to be a favorite with learned and unlearned alike. 

Many of these Indian traditions, like the legends of 
the winds, the origin of maize, the pictured rocks, the 
wooing and the wedding, the famine and desolation, 
and the meeting of impersonated spring and winter, 
which seemed frivolous originally, became invested 
with a deep significance. Historical accuracy, indeed, 
was neither desired nor required. The proprieties of 
time and place are not likely to be punctiliously 
observed in such performances. But the poet strains 
his privileges to the utmost when he brings his mythi- 
cal hero down into historic times. Freiligrath, in the 
preface to his translation, comments on the incongruity 
of Hiawatha, son of the west wind, meeting Christian 
missionaries in the seventeenth century, ^ and Long- 
fellow himself deprecated the closeness of the contact 
between saga and history in that respect. 

Though one of our most versatile writers and gifted 
with a keen sense of humor, Longfellow was no humor- 
ist. The wit of Chispa in "The Spanish Student" is 
flat and bookish. The poet's playful fancies, his near- 
est approach to humor, find their best expression in 
portions of "Hiawatha" and such of his tales as "The 
Cobbler of Hagenau," "The Bell of Atri," and "The 
Monk of Casal Maggiore. " In most of these the 

1 Der Sang von Hiawatha, Uebersetz von F. Freiligrath. Stuttgart, 
1857, p. xii. 

IS 



226 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

lighter vein is like that of Washington Irving in prose, 
pleasing and graceful, but nothing more. They will 
doubtless continue to furnish entertainment for an idle 
hour, and that is all they were intended to do. There 
is little in them to stir the deeper emotions, as in the 
most significant passages in " Evangeline " or " Hia- 
watha," or even in some of our poet's finest lyrics. 

Compared with the lofty ideals exemplified in Long- 
fellow's best work, his dramatic writings seem almost 
puerile. It is in these that his weakest points are 
most conspicuous. His culture, which stands him. in 
such good stead in his ordinary narratives, here becomes 
a positive hindrance. His imaginative faculties and 
his constructive power seem paralyzed. Properly 
speaking, these are not dramas at all. The strange part 
of it all was that the poet sincerely hoped that his 
trilogy of '* Christus " would be the work which would 
carry his name through the ages. Nothing could be 
more majestic than the theme, nothing more disap- 
pointing than its treatment. While the poet was so 
absorbed with his subject, he was, as his diary shows, 
not without grave misgivings as to the result. The 
second part, "The Golden Legend," relieves the series 
from the imputation of literary failure. There the 
poet is on favorite ground. Mediaeval legends, myths, 
and superstitions form the accessories to the main 
subject, — the self-sacrificing love of the heroine for 
the unfortunate prince. The subject was suggested by 
Der Arme Heinrich of Hartmann von der Aue, a minne- 
singer of the twelfth century. The poem has been de- 
servedly praised by John Ruskin for its faithful 
portraiture of monkish life in the Middle Ages. Aside 
from its dramatic pretensions, it is 'a noteworthy pro- 
duction, and in spite of its origin, is truly Longfellow's 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 227 

own. Yet we should hesitate a long while before 
accepting the judgment of both G. P. R. James and 
Bayard Tg,ylor in pronouncing it a greater poem than 
"Evangeline." Longfellow's avowed object was "to 
show, among other things, that through the darkness 
and corruption of the Middle Ages ran a bright, deep 
stream of Faith, strong enough for all exigencies of life 
and death." It was just the sort of theme to enlist 
the author's poetic sympathies as it was the lack of con- 
geniality between the poet and the subjects of the 
other parts of the trilogy that gave them the effects of 
perfunctory workmanship. Though the monologues of 
Abbot Joachim and Martin Luther are in themselves 
fine poems, they can hardly be said to add greatly to 
the value of " Christus " as a whole. The different 
periods of the trilogy are too far separated to be bridged 
over by even such exalted strains as are forced to do 
duty as connecting passages. It is questionable if the 
poet's design would not have been equally apparent 
by the simple arrangement of the parts in historical 
sequence without the artificial aid of these explana- 
tory verses. The design in its very grandeur was a 
vague one, and the "mystery" is neither simplified 
nor complicated by the injection of these superfluous 
" Interludes. " 

Some conception of the development of literary taste 
in this country may be gathered from the fact that be- 
fore 1807 Dante was virtually unknown in America. 
In that year Lorenzo da Ponte, a Venetian, lectured 
in New York upon the Italian poet. " Yet he accom- 
plished little to remove the ignorance of Dante which 
had prevailed ever since the country was settled."^ 
In 1822 appeared the first American reprint of an Eng- 
1 Article on Dante by Philip C. Knapp, Jr., in Encyc. Amer. 



228 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

lish version of Dante (Gary's), and in 1830 Dr. Griffin 
lectured to the students of Columbia College on Dante 
and Italian literature. After removing to Cambridge, 
Longfellow supplemented Mr. Ticknor's labors in 
Italian literature, and lectured on Dante. Extracts of 
his translations from the " Purgatorio " were published 
with the "Voices of the Night" in 1839. ^^ con- 
tinued his work of study and translation in a desultory 
sort of way until 1853, when he seems to have fully 
determined to complete his work. In 1865 ten copies 
of the " Inferno " were printed, half the number being 
sent to Florence as the translator's tribute to the cele- 
bration of the six hundredth anniversary of the poet's 
birth. But the translation of the three parts was not 
completed for general publication until 1867. 

The tardiness of America in appreciating the genius 
of Dante has been in a measure atoned in later years. 
It was an American who discovered Giotto's portrait of 
Dante, and the labors of our own scholars have done 
much to popularize in this country the works of the 
divine Florentine. Longfellow's translation has re- 
ceived the warmest encomiums from Dantean scholars, 
who do not hesitate to pronounce it the best that has 
yet appeared in the English language. The general 
reader, however, is likely to rise from its perusal with 
a feeling of disappointment. In sacrificing the rhymes 
of the original in favor of a strict line-for-line and 
almost word-for-word rendering, the melodious rhythm 
of the Italian is superseded by a diction that is often 
strained and harsh. Special value and interest are 
contributed to Mr. Longfellow's work by the notes and 
comments appended to each part, forming an excellent 
commentary on the life and times of Dante as revealed 
in "The Divine Comedy." 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 229 

Longfellow himself once wrote: "The highest exer- 
cise of imagination is not to devise what otherwise has 
no existence, but rather to perceive what really exists, 
though unseen by the outward eye, — not creation, but 
insight." It was in his detection and description of 
hidden beauties, rather than in strength of original 
creation, that his great power lay. No other poet could 
so thoroughly idealize the aboriginal myths of our 
woods and streams, so artistically reproduce the mysti- 
cism of mediaeval lore, and so brighten our households 
with the exquisite music of his words. Longfellow 
was the most popular poet that America has produced. 
His poetry has been grafted into the literature of nearly 
every living language in Europe. Royalty did him 
honor, and the common people heard him gladly. 
From the Queen to the cabman in the street, the Eng- 
lish showed their appreciation of him, and his birthday 
was celebrated as a gala day by the children of his 
native land. There was surely something more than 
superficial glamour in work that so elicited the admira- 
tion of the world. No mere "poet of the common- 
place" could thus stir men's feelings. His themes, 
it is true, were often commonplace, just as life and 
love, death and sorrow, are commonplace, as belonging 
to the common experience of mankind. But he was no 
less successful in unhackneyed subjects like "Evange- 
line," "Hiawatha," and " Miles Standish." It is be- 
cause he designed his themes with a true poetic fancy, 
and invested them with a true artistic beauty, that his 
songs sink deep into the memory and refuse to be 
displaced. He sympathized with suffering in any 
form, and it is because his verse pulsates with the 
heart-throbs of humanity that human nature instinc- 
tively recognizes him as one of its noblest exemplars. 



230 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

He sang in fascinating rhythm of the joys and griefs 
that beset every household, and it is because these 
songs touched the hearts and consciences of the people, 
as few such writings can touch them, that he has been 
called the poet-laureate of the Anglo-Saxon home. 

To us of to-day, removed from the magnetism of per- 
sonal contact with the poet, and to whom his name, 
aside from his works, has chiefly an historic interest, 
Longfellow is still the most prominent member of that 
group of singers which shed such lustre on American 
letters. The personal traits which endeared him to 
his friends may well be emulated by all aspirants for 
literary honors. Unswervingly loyal to his art, he 
conscientiously labored to develop the rare talents 
that had been intrusted to him. Serenely oblivious of 
honeyed flattery or malicious abuse through his long 
and gentle life, he upheld the exalted ideal of his youth, 
bequeathing to his country an honored fame and a 
cherished name. 

In Longfellow's works may be witnessed the highest 
development of literary culture in American verse. 
What the poet might have done uninfluenced by foreign 
masters it is idle to conjecture. He assumed all liter- 
ature for his province and accomplished more than any 
other writer in popularizing American verse abroad. 
His workmanship is especially noteworthy for its artis- 
tic finish. He has shown the identity between sim- 
plicity and elegance, gracefulness and vigor. He was 
a noble embodiment of culture, as distinguished from 
mere scholarship. Yet how slightly effective mere 
culture may be when combined with exquisite poetic 
taste rather than poetic talent, is shown in the impres- 
sion created by the work of some of our minor poets. 

On the 28th day of December, 1846, Mr. Longfellow 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 231 

noted in his diary: "There is a great 'stampede' on 
Parnassus at the present moment, a furious rushing to 
and fro of the steeds of Apollo. Emerson's Poems; 
Story's Poems; Read's Poems; Channing's Poems, — 
all in one month." Only the author of the first named 
of these four volumes succeeded in guiding his courser 
into the true empyrean, though Story's Pegasus has 
travelled at a reasonably uniform rate, neither slacking 
his pace nor startling his admirers with any special 
literary vagaries. 

William Wetmore Story (1819-1895), a native of 
Salem, was educated for the bar, and discharged 
his obligation to his profession in the compilation of 
several volumes of law reports and a two-volume edi- 
tion of the life and letters of his distinguished father. 
His legal training manifests itself in his remarkable 
narrative poem, "A Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem," 
wherein the skill of the special pleader is modified by 
the reverent spirit of a refined poet. But art proved 
more congenial than the law, and Massachusetts lost a 
promising young jurist, while Italy gained a noteworthy 
sculptor and poet. His verse is easy, elevated and 
correct, but it is the verse of a sculptor with whom 
form is everything. It must be admitted, too, that 
while there is nothing in his mature verse to betray his 
nationality, save the occasional appearance of so-called 
Americanisms in his diction, he has not been without 
his obligation to American literature, as reflected in 
certain echoes of Longfellow and Holmes. 

Story's intellectual powers, however, were of too high 
an order to rest at imitation. His narratives and dia- 
logues hold a place entirely their own in our literature. 
The vein of melancholy which Hawthorne was sur- 
prised to observe among Story's personal traits runs 



232 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

through the artist's narratives and lyrics. This tone 
of sadness leaves an impression of "beauty akin to 
pain " impossible to resist, but utterly different from 
the Byronic despair which afflicted the songsters of 
Story's youth. He is a master of expression, though 
his facile command of language occasionally leads to 
an infringement of the rule which he so felicitously 
announced in his "Couplets." 

The works of T. W. Parsons (18 19-1892), like those 
of Story, plainly show the influence of foreign resi- 
dence and study. It is not impossible that he will be 
more familiar to posterity, as the "poet" mentioned in 
the "Tales of a Wayside Inn," than as the author of 
some of our most melodious verse. The charm of his 
writings is in their chaste and earnest diction, in the 
highest form of art. He was never a poet of the 
people, though no collection of American poetry seems 
complete without his "Lines on a Bust of Dante." 
His verse is strong and clear, and in its sincere, devout 
spirit seems like an earnest protest against many of 
the tendencies in modern life and thought. An elab- 
orate edition of his translation of the " Inferno " was 
published in 1867. It naturally challenged compari- 
son with that of Longfellow, appearing in the same 
year. While not so faithful as that of the elder poet, 
its very freedom enables the translator the better to 
preserve the spirit of the original. For the general 
reader rather than the student it must be admitted to 
be the more readable of the two. 

Literary culture, which proved almost fatal to Long- 
fellow's dramatic attempts, seems to have had quite the 
contrary effect upon the work of some of our minor 
poets. George H. Calvert (i 803-1 889) and George 
H. Boker (1S23-1890) both owed much of their success 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 233 

to the influence of taste and culture. John Howard 
Payne, of the preceding generation, wrote much but 
originated, little. His claims as a dramatist are the 
slightest, and his fame rests on a single lyric. To 
George H. Boker, of Philadelphia, man of the world 
and diplomat, belongs the distinction of not only writ- 
ing some of the best lyrics and sonnets in our litera- 
ture, but also of being the most successful poetic 
dramatist that America has produced. While " classi- 
cal " in form, his works are refreshingly free from the 
high-stepping twaddle to which at one time our tragic 
muse seemed hopelessly wedded. It may be said of all 
his plays that they possess the essentials of true drama, 
— life, action, and feeling. The best known of these 
doubtless owes much of its popularity to its fine inter- 
pretation on the stage by Lawrence Barrett. 

The last and youngest of this list of cosmopolitan 
poets to be considered is one whose versatility of genius 
would have given him an honorable position in almost 
any field of literature. Bayard Taylor (i 825-1 878), 
like Boker, was a native of Pennsylvania, but, unlike 
him, was not born to opulence. Taylor was a hearty, 
sincere man of affairs, generous, frank, and thoroughly 
manly, his mind polished by attrition with many 
men of many lands, equally at home in the frozen 
North, in the tropics, in the miners' camps of the far 
West, on the desert sands of the Orient, in the peace- 
ful Quaker village, or in the throngs of the bustling 
metropolis. He wrote verses at twelve and printed 
them at sixteen. In his twentieth year the obscure 
country youth set out to make a European journey on 
foot, with scarce any capital beyond an ever-active 
brain and a never-daunted will. On his last European 
trip he left as the accredited minister to one of the 



234 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

world's greatest powers, cheered and inspired by kind- 
est words from the renowned poets of his native land. 
In his thirty-four years of literary labor, Taylor pub- 
lished as author, editor, or translator, no less than fifty- 
two volumes. His literary career may be said to date 
from the publication in 1844 of his little volume, 
" Ximena, or the Battle of the Sierra Morena, and 
Other Poems," long since out of print. But his true 
poetic fame dates from 1848, when he published his 
"Rhymes of Travel." As he essayed nearly every de- 
partment of literature in prose and verse, fiction and 
history, travel and biography, criticism and satire, 
without being absolutely great in any, so he attained a 
moderate degree of success in equally diverging regions 
of song. Like Longfellow, he attempted with varying 
success the lyric, idyllic, dramatic, patriotic, and even 
elegiac. 

Taylor's exuberant rhetoric is both his strength and 
his weakness. Of this he early gave evidence in his 
lyrics "Taurus" and "Moan ye Wild Winds." He 
wrote his " California Ballads " when the future laureate 
of the Pacific coast had barely passed his first decade. 
It was of the California before "the days of forty-nine " 
that Taylor sang his brief but sad memorial, — of the 
old soon to yield to the new, as the moaning music of 
the Monterey pines was to be forever stilled by the 
destroying axe of pioneer and settler. 

In all his later writings he never surpassed the glow- 
ing, passionate imagery of his "Poems of the Orient." 
He seemed to have caught the very spirit of the far 
East and interpreted it as none of our writers before or 
since. It was like an infusion of tropical blood into 
the somewhat stiff and formal body of our American 
verse. This little volume was published in 1855, the 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 235 

same year with Longfellow's "Hiawatha." The ap- 
pearance of two such works, dealing with old themes 
in a manner so unconventional to American readers, 
shows the advance made since the days when stilted 
Indian "epics" and distorted Biblical legends formed 
the stock in trade of native and foreign topics for 
American versifiers. The great gulf fixed between the 
so-called "Sacred Poems" of Willis and Taylor's 
" Poems of the Orient " represents only a dozen years in 
time, but an indefinite period in the development of 
the poetic spirit. By this publication Taylor at once 
placed himself at the head of our minor poets. In his 
higher strains he seemed to unite the lyrical music of 
Poe with the artistic finish of Longfellow. 

None of our verse writers, aside from the Cambridge 
poet, has given so much attention to form. His most 
elaborate narrative poem, "The Picture of St. John," 
shows his skilful use of a uniform measure with more 
than seventy variations in the order of rhyme. It is a 
tragic tale, replete with magnificent passages, florid 
descriptions, and fervid rhetoric, — a richly, colored 
succession of word-pictures. In spite of its highly 
polished workmanship, it fails to appeal to the heart as 
closely as do the unpretentious home pastorals and 
Pennsylvania ballads ; just as the effect of his stately, 
sonorous Fourth-of-July Ode delivered at the Philadel- 
phia centennial fell short of that produced by the few 
unaffected stanzas written by Whittier for the opening 
of the exposition. 

In 1873 Taylor published what must generally be 
regarded as his masterpiece, " Lars, a Pastoral of Nor- 
way. " It is a simple idyl, well and simply told, though 
there are passages flashing with spirit and disclosing 
strong dramatic power. It has been deservedly accorded 



236 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

a place by the side of "Evangeline" and "Snow- 
Bound," among our successful idyllic poems. The 
contrasts between the life and customs of Norway and 
those of the quiet Pennsylvania village are drawn with 
force and skill. To Mr. Taylor is undoubtedly due 
the credit of giving us the noblest representation of 
the Quaker heroine in American poetry. The pure but 
strong character of Ruth is presented with a delicacy 
of touch which betokens the genuine master. The 
whole poem in its theme and execution is refreshingly 
unhackneyed and original. 

Taylor possessed in an eminent degree the essential 
qualities of a translator. He was able, by a sort of 
intuition, to absorb the meaning of a great singer and 
reproduce almost the exact form and spirit. No better 
test could be made of his belief in the efficacy of form 
than an attempt to reproduce all the original metres of 
"Faust," and no stronger argument could be used than 
the success with which he exemplified his theories. 

Our poet's success in reproducing a foreign drama 
was by no means equalled in his original dramatic writ- 
ings. "The Masque of the Gods" (1872) is a classic 
drama, of noble conception, with here and there a 
splendid passage, but as a whole, unsatisfactory, as is 
not surprising in a theme so vast as the correlation of 
the world's religions. "The Prophet (1874) was even 
less successful. This was an attempt to throw the 
glamour of poetry over a certain phase of " American- 
ism," which in every feature is thoroughly repulsive to 
high ideals. Mormonism has produced countless trag- 
edies in every-day life, but is utterly unsuited to a 
poetic drama for the present generation. The lyrical 
drama, "Prince Deukalion " (1878), was his last work, 
his "swan-song," as his wife and biographer terms it. 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 237 

Here again the execution falls far below the vast de- 
sign, — an effort to symbolize the progress of humanity 
from savagery to perfection. The author intended it 
as his greatest work, and Longfellow himself paid it a 
graceful tribute. There are in it resounding lines re- 
calling Taylor at his best. But the exquisite finish of 
some portions makes only more conspicuous the 
mechanical effect of a great part of the work. 

The same qualities which made Taylor a good trans- 
lator made him an excellent mimic. His "Echo Club 
and Other Literary Diversions" (1876) contains some 
clever travesties, interspersed with good off-hand criti- 
cal discussions. The parodies upon Poe, Browning, 
and himself — most of the work was first published 
anonymously in the "Atlantic Monthly" for 1872 — 
were particularly good. The little book deserved a 
much better fate than it received at the hands of the 
public. It is one of the brightest and wittiest produc- 
tions in the literature of criticism. 

Though Taylor accomplished much as traveller, lec- 
turer, novelist, critic, and editor, it was to the name and 
fame of poet that he most aspired. Yet the chief im- 
pression gathered from a careful study of his poetry, as 
a whole, is one of regret, — regret that such high ideals 
failed of realization, regret that such undoubted talents 
should have been so widely diffused as to prevent abso- 
lute greatness in any one direction. On the other hand, 
that he failed to reach the most exalted heights, is no 
reason for withholding our gratitude for his unques- 
tionably noble work. 

The few singers who have been noticed thus far in 
this chapter are sufficient to prove the influence of cul- 
ture upon American song. Since the appearance of 
Longfellow's "Voices of the Night," in 1839, beauty 



238 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

has asserted its true sovereignty, and art has been 
accorded the consideration that was its due. A poet, 
a painter, or musician is none the less a poet, painter, or 
musician for the pains bestowed upon his work, or for 
the study and thought necessary for its elaboration. 
Critics who decry culture in poesy seem to assume that 
the fires of inspiration should always leap spontaneously 
and consume by a process of mental self-ignition. The 
fires that are kept in perennial glow upon the altar by 
the hands of devoted ministrants are no less brilliant 
than the spasmodic flame that leaps to light from some 
unexpected source. As long as the glow of inspiration 
is present, shedding its warmth and- light with impar- 
tial force, we care not how it is enkindled and sus- 
tained. " Beauty is truth, truth beauty. " Longfellow 
did not hesitate to replenish his torch at foreign altar- 
fires, but the light that he diffused, passing through 
the crystal lens of his poetic geniuS; became entirely 
his own. The same may be said of the less renowned 
singers mentioned in connection with his name, who, 
if not innately great poets, aided in spreading the light 
of refined art and taste, inculcating broader feelings 
and more enlightened sympathies with all that may 
tend toward the true and the beautiful. 

Whether Longfellow was more successful as a lyric 
than as a narrative poet is of little importance. It is 
sufficient that he excelled in both the lyric and idyllic. 
If, however, the true character of lyric, as distinguished 
from other poetry, lies in its subjectivity, Edgar Allen 
Poe (1809- 1 849) was unquestionably our greatest lyric 
poet. Even in his unsuccessful narrative poems, "Al 
Araaf " and "Tamerlane," and in his still more unsuc- 
cessful dramatic effort, "Politian," he finds it impossi- 
ble to repress his individual feelings and emotions. 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 239 

But it is not with such experiments that the fame of Poe 
is to be associated. Like Coleridge, before him, and 
Bryant, contemporaneously with him, he expressed his 
distrust of "long poems," believing about a hundred 
lines to be the proper extreme limit of any metrical 
effort. As applied to his own capabilities, Poe's theory 
was undoubtedly correct. In his poetry his lyric verse 
alone bears the stamp of true genius, and it is as a 
lyrist only that he is to be considered our most original 
poet. But even his case is not an exception to the 
general rule that there is no modern singer in whose 
verse cannot be discerned echoes of other voices. 

At the beginning of Poe's literary career, Bryant 
was the only known American poet of enduring fame. 
Poe lived long enough, however, to record his disdain 
of Longfellow and Emerson, his dislike of Whittier, 
and patronizing pity for Lowell. He could see no 
beauty in Wordsworth, and regarded Burns as an 
absurdly overrated poet. A sciolist in culture, he had 
the knack of giving to his writings the effect of pro- 
found erudition. His criticisms were superficial, fre- 
quently flippant and even spiteful, though he vastly 
benefited American letters in puncturing and exposing 
much of the shallow pretentiousness of the time that 
arrogated to itself the name of literature. He despised 
literary impostors, though himself not always superior 
to the artifice that he condemned in others. He early 
registered his protest against the tendency to make 
poetry a study rather than a passion ; yet, if he himself 
is to be credited, his greatest masterpiece was the 
result of most deliberate and systematic study. Of an 
impulsive and aggressive nature, he was, in his powers 
of will, a weakling. Fully conscious of the strength 
that was in him, he was equally conscious of his fatal 



240 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

weakness. With a persistency that was agonizing in its 
desperation, he fought his arch-enemy, struggling against 
inherited conditions, perhaps impossible wholly to eradi- 
cate, until his wretched fate at last made him the theme 
for the mocking scorn of those who, in comparison with 
himself, were the merest intellectual pygmies. 

While still in his Byronic period, not yet out of his 
teens, he wrote : — 

"In visions of the dark night 

I have dreamed of joys departed, 
But a waking dream of life and light 
Hath left me broken-hearted." 

It is seldom that the languishing despair affected by 
verse-smitten youth so accurately foreshadows a life's 
horoscope. 

The charms of poetry were doubtless none the less 
seductive for being "forbidden things." While affect- 
ing to disregard popular opinion, the contemptuous 
indifference with which his efforts were received could 
not fail to sting. It is not difficult to fancy the bitter- 
ness that must have reigned in his proudly sensitive 
soul. He was without honor even in his own house- 
hold. He chafed and railed at his misfortunes, and, 
like many another neglected genius, sought refuge in 
gloom and despair. The poetical " Preface " of his 
1829 volume was considerably enlarged as an "Intro- 
duction" to the edition of 1831, the added lines being 
afterward suppressed. There is one passage in these 
suppressed verses which seems like a shadow forecast 
by coming events : — 

" I could not love except where Death 
Was mingling his with Beauty's breath — 
Or Hymen, Time, and Destiny 
Were stalkine between her and me." 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 241 

One of the most striking traits about Poe is his 
reverence for noble womanhood. Early in youth his 
quick sensibilities were aroused by kindly words from 
the mother of one of his boy friends. The young lad, 
unaccustomed to appreciative notice, became at once 
her ardent worshipper. 

Into her listening ear he would pour the story of his 
real or fancied wrongs, and was always certain of excit- 
ing sympathy. The death of this honored friend, under 
circumstances peculiarly tragical, left Edgar disconso- 
late. Mrs. Whitman has drawn a romantic picture of 
the stricken orphan lad keeping nightly vigil at the 
tomb of his benefactress. " When the nights were very 
dreary and cold, when the autumnal rains fell, and the 
winds wailed mournfully over the graves, he lingered 
longest and came away most regretfully." At this 
time Poe was fifteen and already accustomed to unbur- 
den his heart in verse. But it was his grief at the 
death of this lady, " the one idolatrous and purely ideal 
love " of his boyhood, more than anything else, that 
enkindled the spark of his genius. It was in her mem- 
ory that his early lines, "To Helen," were written. 
This little poem was not published until 183 1, when 
the author was twenty-two, but was probably written 
some years before. It is one of the most perfect lyrics 
ever penned by youthful singer. This sorrow cast its 
shadow far into the coming years and inspired the 
poems, "The Paean," afterward developed into the 
impassioned dirge, "Lenore" and "Irene," subse- 
quently entitled "The Sleeper." Henceforward the 
memories of the silent dead, the shadows of the lonely 
tomb, were to haunt him throughout life, embodied 
occasionally in the fantastic imagery that distinguishes 
"Ulalume" and "The City of the Sea." Later, his 

16 



242 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

rejection by the maiden of his choice only intensified 
his already morbid nature, leading him to apprehend 
nothing but darkness and despair for his heritage. 

Poe's poetical product was slight in bulk. Aside 
from his juvenile publication in 1827, he published but 
three volumes of verse: one at Baltimore in 1829; a 
revised edition at New York in 183 1, with its dedica- 
tion to the West Point cadets, from whom he received 
only ridicule for his pains; and a still further enlarged 
and revised collection under the name of " The Raven 
and Other Poems," at New York in 1845. The last 
named contained probably all bis verse written up to 
that time that he considered worth publishing, includ- 
ing portions of "Politian." The manuscript of the 
unprinted parts of that dramatic poem subsequently 
passed into the hands of Mr. Ingram, who wisely ab- 
stained from publishing what would add nothing to the 
poet's fame. 

Prior to 1845, Poe's poems attracted little notice. 
In 1833, when his fortunes seemed to be at their 
lowest, he scored his first financial success. It was in 
that year that his prose tale, "MS. Found in a Bottle," 
and his blank-verse poem, "The Coliseum," originally 
written as a soliloquy in "Politian," were both deemed 
worthy of prizes offered by the "Baltimore Saturday 
Visitor." It was held inexpedient to bestow both 
prizes upon the same competitor, and he was awarded 
the larger one, a hundred dollars, for his prose tale. 
His prose contributions to the Baltimore periodical, 
and subsequently to the Richmond " Southern Literary 
Messenger," were winning for him an enviable name in 
the world of letters, but his poetry was ignored. He 
returned to the North in 1837, and the remainder of 
his literary life was spent in New York and Philadel- 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 243 

phia. He continued his labors as editor and contrib- 
utor with varying success. As a romance writer he 
was winning fresh laurels every year. Though he was 
ill paid and sorely beset, America was beginning to 
acknowledge his genius. His articles were stolen by 
the English magazines and had already made an im- 
pression in France, where his works are now read and 
translated more than those of any other American. 

Mr. Ingram was the first writer to demonstrate the 
resemblance between "The Raven" and Albert Pike's 
poem on "Isadore," written a year or two earlier, and 
more properly known by the title of "The Widowed 
Heart." These similarities are fully set forth by Mr. 
Ingram in his life of Poe and in a variorum edition of 
"The Raven" published in London in 1885, and need 
not be repeated here. 

While Poe was editing the " Broadway Journal " 
there appeared in its columns a little poem entitled 
"To Isadore," so manifestly the work of Poe that 
Ingram was justified in including it in his edition of 
Poe's poems. This lyric, "To Isadore," was published 
several months after Pike's poem, and has so much in 
common with it, besides the name of the subject, that 
its origin seems apparent. In tracing the genesis of 
"The Raven," Mr. Ingram makes no mention of this 
lyric, yet, if really the work of Poe, as seems reason- 
ably certain, it is strong corroboration of Ingram's 
theory of one source of Poe's most famous poem. 

Pike's ballad undoubtedly exerted its influence on 
Poe, but the suggestion as to the origin of the chief 
figure in Poe's poem must be sought elsewhere. When 
the introductory chapters of " Barnaby Rudge " first 
appeared in America early in 1841, Poe wrote out his 
"prospective review," so shrewdly anticipating the de- 



244 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

nouement of the complicated plot as to elicit from Mr. 
Dickens the startled inquiry whether his American 
critic held communication with the devil. Upon the 
completion of the novel, Poe ventured to make some 
comments on the dramatic possibilities to which the 
croakings of a raven could be turned. It seems, there- 
fore, no very violent assumption that " Grip " was the 
legitimate progenitor of Poe's "ungainly fowl." The 
latter undoubtedly underwent a long period of incuba- 
tion, before he was finally able to sally forth from 
"Night's Plutonian Shore" to take up his abode in 
the "home by horror haunted," It is not necessary 
entirely to reject Poe's own statement as to the genesis 
of his poem, in order to accept Mr. Ingram's ingenious 
theory regarding the origin of "The Raven." How- 
ever it may be, the treatment of the subject is Poe's 
own, in spite of certain echoes from Mrs. Browning's 
"Geraldine's Courtship." He is fully entitled to all 
the glory that it shed upon his name. In few of his 
poems is the conception so fully wrought out, the 
meaning so clear and the underlying thought so per- 
fectly developed. It is no wonder that the reading 
world was taken by storm. It was written for " The 
American Whig Review" for February, 1845, and was 
heralded by a turgid and verbose introduction, inspired, 
if not actually indicted, by the poet himself. Before 
its appearance in the "Whig Review," Mr. Willis was 
allowed to print it in advance in the " Evening Mirror " 
for January 29, 1845. This he did with a laudatory 
notice almost as absurd as the one in the "Review." 
To the last named date is to be ascribed the first 
appearance of a poem destined to a world-wide celeb- 
rity. Readers who could not comprehend the indefi- 
nite imagery of "Lenore," "The Haunted Palace," 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 245 

"The Conqueror Worm," and "Dreamland," could 
grasp this poem at a single reading. In it the sound 
and sense were so harmoniously blended as to appeal to 
the sensibilities of the most obtuse. Its fame became 
international, and the author's genius, so long neg- 
lected and misunderstood, was at last recognized. Its 
success was sufficient to turn a cooler head than Poe's. 
He himself once pronounced it the greatest poem in 
the world. This was shortly after it was finished, evi- 
dently before the ardor of composition had sufficiently 
cooled to enable him to form a candid judgment. Cer- 
tain it is that he afterward modified his opinion, for he 
wrote that, in the true basis of all art, "The Sleeper" 
was the superior poem, though he believed that "not 
one man in a millon could be brought to agree with " 
him in that opinion. What he wrote of " The Sleeper " 
may with equal truth be applied to such lyrics as " The 
City in the Sea," "The Conqueror Worm," "The 
Haunted Palace," "For Annie," and "Ulalume." It 
is in these that his lyrical genius is the least restrained. 
In these his powers of inspiration take their strongest, 
highest flight, not into the pure empyrean of celestial 
hope and faith, but soaring on the pinions of doubt and 
despair into the upper realms of blackest gloom, — 

" Flapping from out their condor wings 
Invisible wo! " 

invisible, indeed, to the grosser vision, but acting 
upon the inner sense like strains of weird, unearthly 
music. His conceptions, though vague, are startling. 
He can exorcise from the land of shadows a doomed 
city of sin, whose spires and minarets gleam with a 
fantastic light, but fall and crumble as noiselessly as 
they arose. He pictures Death as rearing a throne in 



246 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

a strange city, "far down within the dim West," where 
all "have gone to their eternal rest." All about the 
waters lie like "a wilderness of glass," undisturbed by 
a single ripple, unswept by a single breeze, " all things 
hideously serene." Even in the final catastrophe the 
oppressive silence remains unbroken. The slight sink 
ing of the towers causes a sudden movement in the 
"dull tide." 

" The waves have now a redder glow, 
The hours are breathing faint and low — 
And when, amid no earthly moans, 
Down, down that town shall settle hence, 
Hell rising from a thousand thrones 
Shall do it reverence." 

Still more startling in its imagery is the conception 
of that motley drama with — 

" Much of madness and more of sin, 
And horror the soul of the plot." 

A veiled and weeping angel throng is depicted as 
seated in the theatre, watching "a play of hopes and 
fears," — 

" While the orchestra breathes fitfully 
The music of the spheres." 

Humanity is represented as "Mimes in the form of 
God on high," who "mutter and mumble low," mere 
puppets who act — 

" At bidding of vast formless things 
That shift the scenery to and fro." 

It is the destiny of this "mimic rout " to become the 
prey of — 

" A blood-red thing that writhes from out 
The scenic solitude." 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 247 

" Out, out are the lights — out all ! 

And over each quivering form 
The curtain, a funeral pall, 

Comes down with a rush of the storm. 
And the angels, all pallid and wan, 

Uprising, unveiling, affirm 
That the play is the tragedy ' Man,' 

And its hero, the conqueror worm." 

The narrowness of Poe's imaginative genius is 
obvious from his constantly dwelling upon one theme, 
— that of destruction, whether of the body or mind. 
With glowing words and melodious rhythm he sings of 
reason dethroned or consciousness entombed. The 
subject of sentience after death was one that engrossed 
his mind continually, and appears and reappears in his 
prose and verse. The ballad of " Ulalume " was written 
in 1847. The poet, still distraught by the death of 
his idolized child-wife, shattered in health, and impov- 
erished in fortune, was nearing the borderland of in- 
sanity. Though not yet out of his thirties, he lived 
among the ghosts and shadows of a wasted life, in a 
world peopled with the horrors of a Dantean Inferno. 

" There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud 
Resounded through the air without a star." 

It was under such circumstances that the poet com- 
posed his "Ulalume," pronounced by a competent 
critic, "the extreme limit of Poe's original genius." 
The poem will not stand criticism. Many of its lines 
and rhymes are indefensible. Yet, in spite of its 
faults, it is an exquisite lyric. It comes like a wail of 
suffering, wrenched from a tortured, baffled soul, whose 
very anguish finds expression only in a melodious 
rhythm. The vagueness of its fantasies is forgotten in 
the effect of its irresistible music. In spite of the 



248 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

bitter arraignment by Mr. R. H. Stoddard, all classes 
of minds, healthy and otherwise, have been impressed 
by the little poem, and if, as that critic asserts, "no 
musical sense was ever gratified with its measure," it 
is difficult to explain away its subtle charm. 

Poe's devotion to his wife and her mother, the 
" more than mother " to him, should go far in mitigat- 
ing the severe censures that some have seen fit to cast 
upon his private life. In his last poem, the memory 
of his beautiful young wife is so fitly enshrined that 
it is as the sane and sorrowing author of "Annabel 
Lee" that his friends and admirers love to regard him. 
This little lyric is really a tribute to the " love that was 
more than love " which he bore to his idolized Virginia, 
who so far surpassed anything earthly as to be akin only 
to the angels above, — 

" So that her high-born kinsmen came 
And bore her away from me, 
To shut her up in her sepulchre, 
In this kingdom by the sea." 

It was peculiarly fitting that the last notes of his lyre, 
ere it fell from his hand forever, should vibrate respon- 
sive to the purest feelings that animated his whole career. 
For the remaining months of his life, the chords were 
to remain silent while he himself was marching to his 
tragic end. In that supreme moment, as he lay dying 
in the hospital, the easy victim of Baltimore political 
roughs, how vain and unsatisfying his notions of life 
and art, how empty and shallow his theories of pan- 
theism as expounded in his prose poem of " Eureka," 
must have seemed to him, may be inferred, as in the 
agony of his tortured brain, he breathed the last and 
perhaps the only sincere prayer of his life, " Lord help 
my poor soul ! " These last words that ever passed 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 249 

his lips sound like a confession that, after all, something 
more than mere abstract beauty is essential to satisfy 
the yearnings of human nature. 

Poe has suffered almost as much from indiscriminate 
panegyrists as from malignant detractors. Now that 
the generation that knew him for good and for ill has 
passed away, and with it all personal prejudices and 
predilections, it is possible to consider his work in that 
impartial spirit which he himself would have demanded. 
His most devoted admirers must admit the narrowness 
of his poetic range. Within those narrow limits he 
stands peerless among our purely lyrical singers. He 
was in no sense of the abused term a " national poet." 
He was not even a humanitarian one. Yet contracted 
as was his imaginative power the world itself was not 
broad enough for his song. In the land of dreams, 
fairies, clouds, and shadows he wandered. The hopes, 
fears, and aspirations of struggling humanity were as 
nothing to him. Beauty alone, in his judgment, was 
the purpose of poetry — truth only as subordinate to 
beauty; heroism, patriotism, love of home, of honor, 
or of duty, or any of the sublimer virtues, had no place 
as such in his realm of song. The Greek dramatists he 
brushed aside with contempt, though he could speak 
patronizingly of Milton. It must be admitted that he 
remained true to his ideals, in spite of temptations to 
prostitute his talents. Rather would he eat the crust 
of poverty than permit his poetic passions to be excited 
"with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more 
paltry commendations of mankind." He instinctively 
hated didacticism, yet his verse is as pure and free from 
moral blemish as the most exacting could demand. As 
in his prose he fell short of Hawthorne's power to sound 
the depths of the human soul, so in his verse he failed 



250 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

to reach the divine heights scaled by his great master, 
Coleridge. His imagination was vivid, but not profound. 
His descriptions, analytical almost to tediousness in his 
prose, are purposely vague and indefinite in his verse. 
His conceptions, as he remarks of those of Shelley, are 
seldom perfectly wrought out. Yet his undoubted 
originality, his fantastically gorgeous imagery, the 
stirring music of his song, the sweetness and melody 
of his diction, and his epigrammatic expressions of 
thought at once stamp his poetry as the work of a man 
of genius and individuality. 

The literary faults of Poe are as sharply defined as 
his merits. His tendency to subordinate sense to sound, 
and his verbal affectations, such as his use of terms rare 
and obsolete, or in a sense removed from their legiti- 
mate meanings, are among his most obvious mannerisms. 
But perhaps his gravest offence was the assumption of 
a profound learning which he by no means possessed. 
One of his biographers is inclined to regard him as the 
most scholarly writer our country has produced. " His 
acquaintance with classical literature," we are assured, 
" was thorough. His familiarity with modern literature 
was extensive, while of English literature it can be truly 
said he knew it from the very source. Even the most 
insignificant of his writings show scholarship." Poe 
enjoyed nothing so much as to hoax the reading public, 
and through the verisimilitude of some of his tales and 
sketches, often produced the desired effect. But the 
most successful of all his impositions were the displays 
of erudition which inspired such awe in the minds of 
some of his admirers. Poe's singular error concerning 
the authorship of " QEdipus at Colonus " may have been 
uttered through carelessness rather than ignorance, but 
no such excuse can be urged for other inaccuracies 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 



251 



scattered throughout his works. Mr. Woodberry was 
probably the first to do full justice to Poe's pretensions 
in this respect. It is sufficient to cite one flagrant 
example, the case of the note to his well-known lyric 
" Israfel." Originally it read, " And the angel Israfel, 
who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures: 
Koran." The passage, as Mr. Woodberry points out, 
is not in the Koran, but in Sale's ** Preliminary Dis- 
course." In the notes to Moore's " Lallah Rookh," 
where Poe found it, it is correctly attributed to Sale. 
At a later time Poe " interpolated the entire phrase, 
* whose heart-strings are a lute ' (the idea on which the 
poem is founded), which is neither in Moore, Sale, nor 
the Koran." ** With this highly original emendation," 
adds his biographer, " the note now stands in his works 
as an extract from the Koran." 

No especial fault, perhaps, is to be found with Poe 
for his habit of republishing in the magazines, as new, 
remodelled versions of his own pieces which had already 
been printed. These alterations are almost invariably 
improvements on the originals. Not so commendable 
was his custom of inscribing the same lines as personal 
tributes to different individuals. Thus the little poem 
beginning " Beloved ! amid the earnest woes," he first 
published in 1835 ^^ ^ tribute "To Mary." After trans- 
posing the stanzas he republished it in 1842, addressed 
"To One Departed," and in 1845 he printed it for a 
third time, and as intended for Mrs. Frances Sargent 
Osgood. Another short poem, " Thou Would'st Be 
Loved?" was originally written to Miss White, and 
published in 1835. ^^i 1839, slightly altered, it was 

reprinted and addressed " To ," and finally, in 1845, 

once more pressed into service, this time as another 
tribute to Mrs. Osgood, who has been allowed to remain 



252 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the last and undisputed subject of both poems. That 
estimable lady, so far from resenting these tributes at 
third hand, was profoundly grateful to the poet, and to 
her dying day was one of his most earnest defenders. 

Poe's personal traits have been too widely exploited 
to need further discussion here. His shortcomings have 
been pitilessly exposed. The sanctity of his home has 
been invaded, and the veil ruthlessly drawn from his 
domestic life. Weaknesses that have been condoned 
in other literary men have been made matters of bitter- 
est reproach against him. Actual inability to meet 
financial obligations has been imputed to him as pre- 
meditated dishonesty. Inherited tendencies, against 
which he valiantly strove, have been exaggerated and 
misrepresented. His chivalric deference to woman- 
hood has been misconstrued for insincerity and fickle- 
ness. " My whole nature utterly revolts at the idea 
that there is any being in the universe superior to 
myself," were the words that he used in commenting 
on his own theories of cosmogony. This, of course, 
was said in no spirit of egotism, but simply as regard- 
ing himself as a type of universal manhood. Yet he 
was thoroughly out of touch with humanity. In his 
estimate of others he was frequently unjust, and, as we 
have seen, affected a disdain of contemporary applause. 
It remained for posterity to vindicate his name. He 
was the second American poet to be honored with a 
monument after death. His fame increases with the 
years. A little more than a quarter of a century after 
he had passed away a cenotaph was reared by the 
school-teachers of Baltimore above his grave. The 
tributes that were then received from the greatest living 
singers in the old world and the new afford some 
evidence of the honor in which he is held in the repub- 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 253 

lie of letters. Ten years later the Poe memorial in New 
York Metropolitan Museum was erected by the actors 
of America. In England he is the only American poet 
to contest the popularity of Longfellow, and his works 
have been translated into French, German, Spanish, and 
ItaHan. Besides these, there is said to be a Russian 
translation of " The Raven." A Latin translation of 
that poem was published at Oxford and London in 
1866, and one in Hungarian appeared at Budapest in 
1870. His personal character for good and for bad was 
probably what might have been expected from one of 
his nervously sensitive organization, subjected to such 
a course of training as he received. This should be 
borne in mind by those who are in such haste to pass 
judgment upon his private affairs. There need be no 
disposition to absolve Poe from due moral account- 
ability. Yet, as Burns the man has long been absorbed in 
Burns the poet, it is not too much to ask a like charitable 
judgment in behalf of the ill-starred American, in whose 
verse there is not the shadow of moral uncleanness. 

The slanders and misstatements of enemies have 
been lost in the presence of honors that have been 
heaped upon his memory by people of two continents. 
His genius has triumphed over his misfortunes, and a 
poetic justice has been done to his name. As a poet, 
he was the incarnation of his own Israfel, " whose heart- 
strings are a lute. " His high-strung spiritual nature 
seemed so attuned as to be able to give forth only 
sounds of harmony. He could not utter an unmelo- 
dious expression, and a single discordant note sent a 
tremor of pain through his sensitive organization. His 
was pre-eminently one of the "Voices of the Night," 
but never were messages of gloom and despair set to 
such seductive music. 



254 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Among the literary women who inspired much that 
was best in Poe, the names of three are especially 
prominent, — Mrs. Estelle Anna Lewis, Mrs. Sarah 
Helen Whitman, and Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood. 
The weak side of Poe's critical genius was manifest 
when he allowed his chivalric impulses to override his 
literary judgments, and to bestow praise upon the 
works of these ladies out of all proportion to actual 
merit. 

Mrs. Lewis (i 824-1 880), a native of Baltimore, pub- 
lished several volumes of verse. Among these were 
three tragedies, one of which, "Sappho of Lesbos," 
passed through at least seven editions, was translated 
into Greek, and played at Athens. Her early publica- 
tions profoundly impressed Poe, who wrote a fulsome 
review of them, and called her a rival of Sappho. 
Among the last things she wrote were some sonnets in 
vindication of Poe's memory. Lamartine referred to 
her as a "female Petrarch." Yet, within ten years 
after her death, she had been so completely forgotten 
that she was not deemed worthy a place in Stedman 
and Hutchinson's exhaustive "Library of American 
Literature." Of one of her lyrics, "The Forsaken," 
Poe deliberately declared: "The popular as well as 
the critical voice ranks it as the most beautiful ballad 
of the kind ever written." 

Mrs. Whitman of Providence was the Helen of Poe's 
later years, and inspired his poem beginning, "I saw 
thee once, — once only, — years ago." She was con- 
ditionally betrothed to the poet, and though the engage- 
ment was broken, throughout her life remained his 
loyal defender. She was a pure and noble woman, 
with reference to whose relations with Poe, it has been 
truly said that her saintly life might well atone for his 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 255 

sad and stormy career. She outlived her poetic fame, 
but will be remembered as the author of " Edgar Poe 
and his Critics" (i860), a warm defence of the poet. 
Her verse evinces both tenderness and passion, but 
aside from the tributes to Poe, possesses but little 
interest. 

The most gifted of the three was Mrs. Osgood (181 1- 
1850), a native of Boston and wife of the artist S. S. 
Osgood. Her imagination was not of the loftiest kind, 
though Poe praised it, adding with characteristic 
enthusiasm : " In that indescribable something which, 
for want of a more definite term, we are accustomed 
to call 'grace,' — that charm so magical because at 
once so shadowy and so potent, that Will-o '-the- Wisp, 
which in its supreme development may be said 
to involve nearly all that is valuable in poetry, — 
she has unquestionably no rival among her country- 
women." Her first volume, "A Wreath of Wild 
Flowers from New England," published in London in 
1839, was favorably reviewed by the periodicals of 
England and America. While in Great Britain, Mrs. 
Osgood was the friend of Rogers, Mrs. Norton, and 
Sheridan Knowles. She made some claims as a 
dramatist, but her juvenile lyric, "Little Things," 
beginning, — 

" Little drops of water, little grains of sand 
Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land," 

has long outlived her ambitious poems and dramatic 
efforts. 

The period under review was especially prolific of 
feminine singers. To the names of the tuneful sister- 
hood just mentioned might be added those of Mrs. 
Sarah J. Hale (1788-1879), Elizabeth F. Ellett (1818- 



256 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

1877), whom Poe both praised and abused, and Miss 
Amelia Welby (1819-1852), whom Poe declared pos- 
sessed " nearly all the imagination of Maria del Occi- 
dente, with a more refined taste, and nearly all the 
passion of Mrs. Norton, with a nicer ear, and (what is 
surprising) equal art." The list might be easily ex- 
tended to include a score or more, equally deserving of 
mention. While conceding to them the deference due 
to respectable talents, we turn to those who struck 
the lyre with stronger hand and firmer touch. 

Among our artist poets we have produced no truer 
lyrist than Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872), a 
native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in after 
life, a resident of Cincinnati, New York, Boston, 
Philadelphia, and later of Italy. By turns, a house 
painter, sign painter, designer, sculptor, poet, and 
portrait painter, a literary Bohemian and an assthetic 
adventurer, he rose from humblest origin to a position 
of eminence, and at the time of his death, had an inter- 
national reputation. Whether painting designs in the 
rural districts of America, or studying art in Florence, 
he did his work well and conscientiously. He was 
neither a great artist nor a great poet, but he painted 
some good portraits, notably the picture of Long- 
fellow's children, once so popular; he modelled some 
excellent busts, as that of Sheridan, and wrote some 
genuine lyrics, as "Drifting," "The Deserted Road," 
"The Closing Scene," "Passing the Icebergs," "Mid- 
night," and "Rosalie." These, and others like them, 
show vivid fancy, creative genius, and sympathy with 
Nature. His martial lyrics, like "Sheridan's Ride," 
struck the popular fancy, though by no means the best 
that the Civil War produced, nor equal, in literary 
merit, to many of his other pieces. His long narra- 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 257 

tive poems have made no lasting impression. Poe 
once stigmatized him as an imitator of Longfellow 
and therefore "but an echo of an echo," a sneer that 
was cruelly unjust to both poets, and evidently uttered 
for no other reason than to give vent to the critic's 
personal feelings. Read admired, loved, and studied 
Longfellow, but was no more an imitator of the Cam- 
bridge poet than was Poe of Coleridge. 

In such pieces as " The Deserted Road " and " The 
Closing Scene," Read's genuine Americanism is ap- 
parent, but where the poet's efforts at nationalism 
are more forced, as in the long poems, " The New Pas- 
toral," and "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies," the 
result is far from satisfactory. A love of nature, 
patriotism, and chivalric respect for womanhood are 
the most obvious traits of Read's Americanism. "The 
Brave at Home," one of the lyrics interspersed through- 
out "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies," inspired count- 
less imitations, none of which approached the original 
in its combination of beauty and simplicity. 

"Sheridan's Ride" is a spirited rendering of a pic- 
turesque incident of the Civil War. Like all good 
efforts of its kind, it has suffered more or less from 
ambitious declaimers. But that is no fault of the poem 
itself. The lyric, "Drifting," shows the work of both 
poet and artist, but in all the true essentials of lyric 
verse, " The Celestial Army " is easily first of all of 
Read's poems. 

The publication of Read's first volume (1846) at- 
tracted little attention. Longfellow, ever ready to 
detect and encourage true merit, gave the young poet 
words of sympathy and cheer. Even Poe found some 
good in these lyrics, though he mingled gall and worm- 
wood with the sweetness of his praise. Upon the gen- 

17 



258 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

eral public, however, these little poems made but slight 
impression. American criticism was still in its pro- 
vincial stage, and hesitated to commend literary excel- 
lence until some foreign judgment had been favorably- 
pronounced. It was this undue deference to trans- 
atlantic opinion that so exasperated Poe. "Is it too 
much," exclaims the author of 'The Raven,' "to say 
that with us the opinion of Washington Irving, of Pres- 
cott, of Bryant, is a mere nullity in comparison with 
that of any sub-sub-editor of the 'Spectator,' the 
'Athenaeum,' or the 'London Punch'? It is not 
saying too much to say this. There is not a more dis- 
gusting spectacle under the sun than our subserviency 
to British criticism. It is disgusting, first, because it 
is truckling, servile, pusillanimous; secondly, because 
of its gross irrationality." What was the immediate 
cause of this outburst on the part of Poe, it is unneces- 
sary to inquire. Its truth at the time is unquestioned. 
Our young artist-poet himself must have appreciated 
its significance. As a poet, Read was still in obscurity 
in his native country until about 1850, when a writer 
(presumably Coventry Patmore) in the "North British 
Review" called attention to Read's poems, praising 
them lavishly, and extolling "The Closing Scene" 
above Gray's "Elegy." The same writer pronounced 
Read the best poet of America. As the same estimate 
has been placed by British criticism upon nearly every 
American poet of note from Fenno Hoffman to Walt 
Whitman, such indiscriminate eulogy would now prob- 
ably pass unnoticed. Not so half a century ago. 
" Contemporaneous posterity " in the shape of foreign 
judgment had then much more weight. The "North 
British " critique made Read famous. We began to 
detect hidden beauties in his poems not dreamed of 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 259 

before. An American poet whose praises were being 
sounded in England was worth looking into. The good 
opinions of Longfellow and Foe had been sustained 
by foreign' authority, and Read was awarded a place 
among the elect. A generous review of his poems by 
Mr. R. H. Stoddard 1 brought Read still more promi- 
nently before the public, and from that time the Penn- 
sylvania poet may be said to have steadily risen in 
popular favor. He evidently profited by Stoddard's 
friendly criticism. He outgrew the pretty conceits 
that characterized much of his earlier work, and in the 
end gave us some of the most virile and striking verse 
of that period. 

While Poe was editing the " Broadway Journal " in 
1845, he received for publication a manuscript poem 
entitled "Ode on a Grecian Flute." Its author was 
then unknown in literary circles. Poe, in the columns 
of his paper, acknowledged receipt of the little poem, 
but declined to publish it unless convinced of its au- 
thenticity. The young author then visited the editor 
to assure him of the genuineness of the poem. Poe 
was evidently in ill temper. " He gave me the lie 
direct," as the author of the " Ode " afterward narrated, 
"declared that I never wrote it, and threatened to 
chastise me unless I left him at once." 

The world was thus deprived of the privilege of 
enjoying the fruit of adolescent genius. The crest- 
fallen author left the editor's presence with mingled 
feelings of anger and satisfaction, indignant at the 
gratuitous insults, but secretly elated at the thought 
that his effusion showed too much merit to be deemed 
the work of an unknown writer. It was reserved for 
this young author, the recipient of such an unmannerly 

1 National Magazine (Apr. 1855) VI. 292. 



26o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

greeting, to be in after years the biographer and editor 
of the elder poet. Mr. Stoddard was not the man to 
cherish resentments, and wrought a noble revenge by 
giving to the world a discriminating and impartial 
biography of Edgar Poe, prefixed to a carefully pre- 
pared six-volume edition of the latter' s works. 

Richard Henry Stoddard was born at Hingham, 
Massachusetts, July 2, 1825. He could not therefore 
have been over twenty when he displayed the hardi- 
hood of submitting his work to such a recognized critic 
as the author of "The Literati." So far from being 
discouraged at the rebuff, he continued to cultivate his 
native talents and to improve his taste by intelligent 
study of the best English writers. He has, in one of 
his poems, expressed his admiration of Keats, who was 
his early model. His first volume, "Footprints" 
(1849), h^ afterward suppressed. The self-criticism 
evidenced by the repudiation of his early muse con- 
tinued to influence him throughout his literary career. 
His works give evidence of the care and pains bestowed 
even on his most trifling efforts. In spite of discour- 
aging obstacles, he has gallantly fought his way to 
a foremost position am.ong American men of letters. 
As critic, editor, and commentator, he has shown ex- 
cellent judgment, but it is undoubtedly as a lyric poet 
that he will hold his place in literature. He is as 
loyal a devotee of Beauty as was Poe, but far surpasses 
the latter in his susceptibility to Nature's influence. 
The lack of the human element in much of his verse is 
also suggestive of Poe. Through all Stoddard's elegiac 
poems there darts not one ray of hope. Possibly this 
may be due to the Orientalism that tinges so much of 
his poetry. He does not even indulge in that " luxury 
of woe" which makes Poe's memorial verse read like a 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 261 

pasan of triumph. If we may venture a prediction, his 
" Songs of Summer " (1856) will keep his memory alive 
long after his maturer work is forgotten. We like 
better to think of him as the author of — 

" There are gains for all our losses, 
There are balms for all our pains," 

written in the early summer of his manhood, than as 
the singer who rejects this hopeful view in his later 
years to tell us, — 

" If I sang that song again 
'T would not be with that refrain 
Which but suits an idle tongue. 

" No, the words I sang were idle, 
And will ever so remain ; 
Death and Age and vanished Youth 
All declare this bitter truth, 
There 's a loss for every gain." 

As a writer of odes, Mr. Stoddard stands second 
only to Lowell in American literature. They all show 
the lofty tone, the energetic, virile style, the melodious 
cadences echoing and re-echoing the thought, and the 
glowing imagination of which he early gave such proof 
in his "Carmen Naturae." It is the music of these 
and some of his shorter lyrics that gives significance to 
the word " song " in the general sense of poetry. Stod- 
dard is a "singer" in the true meaning of the term. 

Before the war the South produced few native lyrists 
of note. Poe, Pinkney, Wilde, and Pike were born 
either at the North or abroad. William Gilmore 
Simms (i 806-1 870) published several volumes of verse, 
which have been completely overshadowed by his 
prose. Albert Pike (i 809-1 891) published in "Black- 
wood's," in 1839, ^is "Hymns to the Gods," which 



262 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

gave promise of excellence not altogether fulfilled in 
his long and active career. His " Dixie," set to a pop- 
ular air which has been traced back to slavery times in 
New York State, became, in a multitude of variations, 
a Southern Marsellaise. Philip Pendleton Cook (1816- 
1850), of Virginia, is remembered as the author of the 
little lyric " Florence Vane," so highly praised by Poe. 
In the Southern periodicals from 1849 to 1853 would 
occasionally appear lyrics under the nom de plume of 
" Aglaus," showing more than ordinary merit. These 
and others by the same writer were collected in book 
form and published in i860. The longest of these 
poems was a metrical essay, entitled "Visions of 
Poetry," intended to illustrate the laws of verse. 
The volume was published at an inopportune time, and 
attracted little notice. There was sufficient in it, 
however, to show that a Southern poet had arisen to 
contest the laurels of Hayne. The author, Henry 
Timrod (i 829-1 867), like his friend and future editor 
and biographer, was a native of South Carolina. Even 
more than Hayne, he was the laureate of the Confed- 
erate cause. He gave us probably the best of the war 
lyrics written in the South. To him was allotted more 
than the common share of sorrow. As in the case of 
Poe, poetry with him was a passion, and for this pas- 
sion he was ready to sacrifice any worldly advantage. 
His pleasant dreams were rudely shattered amid the 
din of arms, but he gave of his best to the cause he 
loved so well. Defeated, disappointed, and impover- 
ished, he died of consumption two years after the war. 
Simms, Hayne, and Timrod strove to advance the 
cause of literature in their native State. Timrod was 
the first of the trio to go, and it was not until after 
his death that the South realized the rarity of the 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 263 

genius it had lost. His works were published with 
appropriate eulogy by Hayne, in 1873. The chief 
value of these war lyrics is in the faithfulness with 
which they reflect the sectional feeling of the time. 
Like all occasional verses, they have little of perma- 
nent interest as poetry. The terms "tyrants," "in- 
vaders," "murderers," and "Huns" are flung at the 
defenders of the national cause with an iteration ex- 
ceedingly wearisome to the reader of to-day. It is 
worth a remark that when his posthumous volume was 
published in New York and passed through several 
editions, it found a ready acceptance among the class 
of Huns, tyrants, and invaders so bitterly assailed. 

The proportionate part borne by woman in the devel- 
opment of our literature is probably without historical 
precedent. The earliest New England poet of note 
was a woman. It was the prose and verse of another 
woman that inspired hope and courage in the breasts of 
the Revolutionary soldiers and statesmen, and to whom 
we are indebted for a faithful record of that struggle. 
Woman's influence in our later literature has long been 
one of the controlling forces. It was woman's min- 
strelsy that gave a local color to Western poetry. 
Alice Gary (i 820-1 870) and her sister Phoebe (1824- 
1871) were both born near Cincinnati, then one of the 
outskirts of the far West. The West had been cele- 
brated in song before Alice was born, but she and her 
sister were the first of Western birth to give us verse of 
high quality. Their poetic ventures were first printed 
in local newspapers, but soon reached the hearts of the 
people throughout the land. In 1850, at Philadelphia, 
the sisters published their poems together in one 
volume, and shortly after removed to New York, where 
they supported themselves by literature. Their city 



264 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

home became the resort of many of the most cultured 
men and women of the day. 

The poetry of each is marked by a distinct individ- 
uality. Alice's song was tender, musical, and deep, 
with a touch of mysticism; Phoebe's was buoyant, 
hopeful, and vigorous. Alice's was tinged throughout 
with melancholy and thoughts of death; Phoebe's with 
the joys and hopes of life. Alice could startle with 
her depth of meaning, while Phoebe would descend to 
parodies. Poe praised Alice's "Pictures of Memory" 
with its opening lines, — 

" Among the beautiful pictures 
That hang on Memory's wall, 
Is one of a dim old forest, 
That seemeth best of all," 

as one of the most perfect lyrics in the English lan- 
guage. This was perhaps only another instance of that 
critic's indiscriminate use of the superlative in treat- 
ing of female poets. Yet no one can read Alice's 
earlier lyrics without noting a kinship of genius. Her 
"Lily Lee," "Ulalie," and "The Spirit Haunted" 
suggest Poe at once. Much better, because thoroughly 
her own, are such simple lyrics as "Helva," "Long- 
ings," "Nobility," and "The Farmer's Daughter." 

A vastly improved standard was a noted feature of 
our literary growth during the middle years of the cen- 
tury. One of the potent forces to this end was the 
improved character of our magazines. The public 
appetite that had become jaded from a long period of 
mediocrity could now find relief when editorial articles 
could be looked for each month from a Mitchell, a 
Curtis, or a Lowell. Besides the Cary sisters, a num- 
ber of writers sprang into notice from the high quality 
of their contributions to the leading monthlies. As 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 265 

fairly representing the best of this important class, 
may be selected Mrs. Rose Terry Cooke (1827 1892). 
Bred under strictest Puritan discipline, taught to read 
before she was three, to study and learn columns of 
Walker's Dictionary at five, and to keep a diary at six, 
debarred the childish pleasures commonly allowed to 
those of her age, her pent-up feelings burst forth in 
song, whose burden naturally was a tender melancholy. 
No one has more pitilessly portrayed in prose the hard- 
ness and narrowness of a certain phase of New England 
life. Her lyrics are remarkable for their natural 
music, and as a ballad writer she is not surpassed by 
any of our female poets. A singer who could give 
uniformly good work in such varying keys as "Two 
Villages," "En Espagne," "Blue Beard's Closet," "A 
Story," "Once Before" and "Penna's Daughter," has 
earned her right to a place not far from the elect. 

Dr. Holmes' famous aphorism, that nothing lasts 
like a coin or a lyric, is true of works by writers far 
less celebrated than the one to whom it was originally 
applied. There is a certain class of poems, which, for 
felicity of expression rather than depth of thought 
go straight to the heart. The world has taken them 
up, and they pass current without much regard to 
intrinsic value. If Theodore O'Hara (1820-1867), 
the Kentucky patriot, wrote anything of merit besides 
"The Bivouac of the Dead," the world at large has 
forgotten it. William H. Lytle (i 826-1 863) owes his 
poetic fame exclusively to verses written in 1857, 
beginning, — 

" I am dying, Egypt, dying ; 
Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast." 

Of the "Poems of Many Moods," by Cornelius G. 
Fenner (1822-1847), "Gulf -Weed" alone drifts above 



266 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the sea of oblivion. The ambitious tragedy of " Ve- 
lasco," by Epes Sargent (1813-1880), at this day in- 
terests nobody, but his songs of the sea are still read, 
and nearly every one has sung or recited his — 

"A life on the ocean wave, 

A home on the roaring deep ; 
Where the scattered waters rave. 
And the winds their revels keep." 

Although Mrs. Julia Ward Howe has written many 
beautiful poems, her " Battle Hymn " alone has retained 
a hold upon the people. Coates Kinney is known to 
the general public by a single lyric, while his more 
meritorious work is ignored. Two ballads of Albert 
Greene (1802-1868) have survived whole libraries of 
patriotic epics and classic tragedies written within the 
last half-century. 

The bulk of American verse is naturally lyrical. All 
of our best poets have written beautiful lyrics, but, 
with the exception of Poe, they have shown equal or 
greater power in some other branch of song. For the 
lyrical poets mentioned in this chapter, the sifting pro- 
cesses of time have already begun. The reverse of 
Dr. Holmes' dictum is also true. If nothing lasts like 
a lyric, nothing is so short-lived. A survey of the 
field cumbered with names that were "household 
words " a generation ago, now remembered only by the 
literary student or antiquarian, shows the mutability 
of this class of literature. Poe's fame, indeed, is 
assured, being brighter now than at his death half a 
century ago. It is doubtful if a majority of the minor 
poets considered in this chapter will be long remem- 
bered otherwise than as " single-poem writers. " These 
served their purpose while they lasted. It is no re- 
proach that they have not all earned a place among the 



IDYLLIC AND LYRIC POETS 267 

immortals. The song-birds of summer are none the 
less to be enjoyed for being the voices of a single 
season. While, therefore, we watch the shadows of 
oblivion steadily creeping over many a once treasured 
name, it is sufficient that these minor singers in their 
day fulfilled a purpose in making the world wiser and 
brighter for their presence. 



CHAPTER XII 

HUMOR AND SATIRE 

1836-1870 

THERE has never been an absolute dearth of humor 
in American literature. The most sombre 
periods have been enlivened with occasional flashes of 
wit and even levity. As early as 1646, Nathaniel 
Ward published his mirth-provoking work, "The Sim- 
ple Cobler of Agawam. " The ponderous pleasantries 
of Cotton Mather, Nicholas Noyes, and others of that 
primitive period, fairly rival the gigantic gambols of 
the leviathans of primeval ages. But it is chiefly the 
unintentional humor of some of these divines that is 
the most refreshing. In 1702 Cotton Mather furnished 
his labored argument proving that his own city of Bos- 
ton was the object of Heaven's special regard. The 
great theologian evidently considered that he had 
reached the acme of praise and adoration in addressing 
the Creator as the "keeper of Boston, who neither 
slumbers nor sleeps." Compared with such manifes- 
tation of local pride, Dr. Holmes' famous aphorism 
concerning the "hub of the solar system," is the sub- 
limation of modesty. Byles and Green, among the last 
of the Puritan poets, left us some tiresome parodies 
and satires, greatly admired in their day. An improve- 
ment is noted in the stimulus given to thought by the 
revolutionary era. All things considered, " McFingal " 
was not an unworthy precursor of " The Biglow Papers." 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 269 

But for posterity to derive anything like serene pleasure 
from these works is quite out of the question. 

The now almost forgotten Thomas Green Fessenden 
(1771-1837) gave some promise of excellence. While 
still a student at Dartmouth, he struck out from con- 
ventional routines and ventured to write a poem deal- 
ing in home subjects. His "Country Lovers" was an 
original creation. The "Yankee Jonathan's Court- 
ship" clearly anticipated Lowell's idyl of "Zekle and 
Huldy." The political and other satires of Fessenden 
soon passed from the public mind, and their author out- 
lived his fame. These works are devoid of literary 
merit, and are interesting only to the political student 
of those times. Though a lawyer by education, and a 
rhymester by choice, Fessenden rendered his best ser- 
vices through his intelligent interest in agriculture. 
He would persist, however, in writing verses. Besides 
directing his diatribes at political opponents, he took 
occasion, from personal motives, to satirize the doctors. 
His "Terrible Tractoration " (1803) was even more 
unmerciful than Dr. Holmes' " Rip Van Winkle, 
M.D.," in scoring the unprogressive members of the 
medical profession. His "Pills, Poetical, Political, 
and Philosophical " (to quote only a portion of the 
long and stupidly alliterative title) was published 
in 1809, the year that Dr. Holmes was born. Though 
in a measure Fessenden anticipated both Holmes and 
Lowell, to compare his vaporings with the scintilla- 
tions of these later poets would be an absurdity. What 
poetic talent he possessed he deliberately sacrificed 
in the cause of the fleeting passions of the time. He 
has left us no substantial monument of his genius. 
Yet in his generation he was widely read, loved, and 
hated. He was among the first American poets to win 



i^o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the approval of English critics. He set the pace for 
later writers of more enduring fame, and his humorous 
writings have a decidedly local, if not national tone. 

The first permanent contributions to American wit 
and humor may be said to date with Irving and the 
Knickerbocker writers. "The Croakers," especially 
Halleck, did some good work. But our rarest exam- 
ples of poetic wit were furnished by the two Harvard 
professors, who, though personally so dissimilar, seem 
destined to have their names inseparably associated. 
Holmes and Lowell, as wits — using that term in its 
true Shaksperean sense — are unsurpassed among con- 
temporary writers of English verse. It has been their 
province to say wise things in an entertaining way. 
It is their subtle wisdom that exalts them above the 
plane of mere humorists. Something more than mirth 
is stimulated by their brightest sayings. Social and 
political humbugs, invulnerable against argument, have 
succumbed to the keen shafts of their ridicule and 
scorn. 

The elder of these, Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809- 
1894), confined his labors chiefly to matters relating to 
literature or to his own profession. Beyond an occa- 
sional lyric or address, he manifested in public little 
interest in the stirring questions of the day. The 
radicalism of his relative, Wendell Phillips, was 
abhorrent to his nature and he openly declared his 
preference for "the man that inherits family traditions 
and the cumulative humanities of at least four or five 
generations." This expressed liking for elegance and 
refinement, so characteristic of most of his lighter 
verse, has been absurdly attributed to snobbishness, 
though no one could be further removed from the typi- 
cal snob. The tributes to Lincoln and Burns have the 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 271 

ring of true Americanism, and some of our finest war 
lyrics are from the autocrat's pen. "The Sweet Little 
Man," dedicated to the " Stay-at-Home Rangers," 
written at the outbreak of the war, is a bitter little 
satire that stung many a timid doubter to action. It 
seems strange that the author of the perhaps over- 
rhetorical address, "The Inevitable Trial," should be 
called an American Tory. He refused to take either 
his patriotism or his religious faith at second hand. 
The maxims of authority had little influence upon his 
own notions of Americanism or orthodoxy. In some 
respects he was as intensely American as Emerson him- 
self. He had no language too bitter to express his 
contempt for the religion of formalism that remains 
deaf and blind to the teachings of nature and science. 

In brief, his religion, which he never sought to conceal, 
seemed to be that of his heroine, who " never saw a 
church door so narrow she could n't go in through it, 
nor so wide that all the Creator's goodness and glory 
could enter it." 

So frankly has Dr. Holmes declared himself in his 
writings that there is no excuse for his being misin- 
terpreted by his reader or critic. His egotism is re- 
freshing in its candor. His freely expressed opinions, 
his personal reminiscences, his grotesque views of life, 
and his heterodoxy seem sufficient to justify an English 
writer in designating him as " The American Montaigne." 

It has been Dr. Holmes' good or bad fortune to be 
our greatest " occasional " poet. The sparkle of post- 
prandial verse must, in the nature of things, soon become 
dim and lifeless. The personality of even a great poet 
is insufficient to preserve the lustre of these pleasing 
trifles. The same may be said of merely comic poetry. 
There is something more than the comic, however, in 



2 72 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Dr. Holmes' humorous pieces. His " Evening, by a 
Tailor," absurdly burlesque as it is, served a purpose 
in holding up to ridicule a style of literary haberdashery 
so prevalent among our earlier writers. Lowell, in criti- 
cising a passage in Pope, wittily says that it suggests 
" Nature under the hands of a lady's maid." Our own 
literature offers a choice variety of figures drawn from 
the dressing-room. Thus Mrs. Sigourney apostrophizes 
Niagara, — 

" Flow on forever in thy glorious robe." 

Rufus Dawes grandiloquently describes how — 

" The clouds have put their gorgeous livery on 
Attendant on the day." 

And reference may be made to McDonald Clark's 
oft-quoted lines, — 

" Now twilight lets her curtain down 
And pins it with a star." 

The robe of the sky, the skirts of the clouds, the 
curtains of the dark, and similar tropes have been 
paraded in verse until worn shabby and threadbare. 
Jaded indeed must be the bard that would resort to 
them after Dr. Holmes' drastic treatment: 

" Day hath put on his jacket, and around 
His burning bosom buttoned it with stars. 
Here will I lay me on the velvet grass, 
That is like padding to earth's meagre ribs. 
And hold communion with the things about me. 
Ah, me, how lovely is the golden braid 
That binds the skirt of night's descending robe ! 
The thin leaves, quivering on their silken threads, 
Do make a music like to rustling satin, 
As the light breezes smooth their downy nap." 

The poem of which these lines are the prelude, is one 
of its author's earliest, but it is doubtful if anything 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 273 

more clever can be found in all his humorous verse. 
The period to which this poem belongs was that of the 
early periodical, The New England Magazine (1831- 
35). Only nine volumes were published, but they are 
of unusual interest to the literary student. There are 
a number of contributions in prose and verse signed 
with the now familiar initials O. W. H, In the number 
for September, 1831, appeared Holmes' "To an Insect." 
Two months later came the first of two papers entitled 
" The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." These papers 
have since been disowned by their author, with the 
expressed hope that they should never be reprinted. 
A writer's wishes in such matters should be respected, 
and we forbear further comment except to note that the 
germs of a classic that has entertained three generations 
of readers are not at all so unworthy the matured product 
as has been assumed. In the same number with the 
opening chapter of " The Autocrat " may be found the 
first publication of " My Maiden Aunt." Other familiar 
lyrics, " The Comet " and " The Dilemma," and one not 
so familiar, " The Destroyers," appeared later. 

Many of the poems contributed by Holmes to college 
and other periodicals were collected and published in 
book-form in 1836. When we consider the character 
of most of our lighter verse at that time, we can appre- 
ciate the effect of such work. The longest poem in the 
volume was the metrical essay on " Poetry," the first of 
his "occasional" pieces, fresh from its delivery before 
the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa. Here, too, were "The 
Last Leaf," which Lincoln found so " inexpressibly 
touching," and which loses none of its freshness with 
the lapse of years; "The Cambridge Churchyard," 
originally a part of his "Metrical Essay;" and "The 
Height of the Ridiculous." It would not be surprising 

i8 



2 74 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

if " The Last Leaf " should gain additional significance 
in outlasting, in the popular mind, all the rest of his 
verse. In his lyric on the katydid, the sly fun that he 
loves to poke at respectable dulness again broke out: 

" Thou mindest me of gentle folks, 
Old gentle folks are they, 
Thou sayst an undisputed thing 
In such a solemn way." 

His thrusts were delivered with such ineffable good- 
humor that no one could resent them. It is doubtful 
if at that time any other American poet could have so 
touched the weak spots of his countrymen without losing 
his popularity. We had not yet outgrown our provincial 
sensitiveness, and were loath to accept criticism upon 
cherished idols. Holmes found occasion, however, to 
ridicule some of our national foibles, but in such a 
charming manner as at once to enlist the reader's 
sympathy. 

One of the most admirable traits of our poet is the 
candor with which he acknowledges his own mistakes. 
In the preface to a new edition of " The Autocrat," in 
1882, he says: 

" We have all of us, writers and readers, drifted away 
from many of our former habits, tastes, and perhaps 
behefs." 

The anti-slavery struggle elicited httle sympathy from 
him, yet at the culmination of that struggle there was, 
as we have seen, no uncertainty as to his position. He 
ridiculed the " Transcendental movement," but lived to 
acknowledge its significance. In 1843, during the days of 
Brook Farm and " The Dial," he wrote for the Harvard 
Phi Beta Kappa his " After Dinner Poem," in which he 
goes out of his way to cast his slurs at the idealists : 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 275 

" On every leaf the ' earnest ' sage may scan, 
Portentous bore ! their ' many-sided ' man — 
A weak eclectic, groping vague and dim, 
Whose every angle is a half -starved whim, 
Blind as a mole and curious as a lynx. 
Who rides a beetle which he calls a ' Sphinx.' 
And O what questions asked in club-foot rhyme 
Of Earth, the tongueless and the deaf-mute Time ! 
Here babbling ' Insight ' shouts in Nature's ears 
His last conundrum on the orbs and spheres ; 
There self-inspection sucks its little thumb, 

„ With ' Whence am I ? ' and ' Wherefore did I come ? ' " 

Half a century later Holmes had so far drifted away 
from his former tastes and beliefs as to write of the 
author of the " club-foot rhymes " of " The Sphinx," 

" Where in the realm of thought, whose air is song. 
Does he, the Buddha of the West, belong? 
He seems a winged Franklin, sweetly wise, 
Born to unlock the secret of the skies ; 
And which the nobler calling — if 't is fair 
Terrestrial with celestial to compare — 
To guide the storm-cloud's elemental flame. 
Or walk the chambers whence the lightning came 
Amidst the sources of its subtile fire 
And steal their effluence for his lips and lyre ? " 

Like Moliere, Holmes took his own property, no 
matter in whose hands he found it, even if in the 
possession of writers so diverse as Jonathan Swift and 
John Quincy Adams. They were his own materials 
that he found, and he m.ade right royal use of them. 
He was the social, as Emerson was the intellectual 
reactionist against the puritan asceticism of their fore- 
fathers. He delighted in warmth and light and genial- 
ity. He believed in throwing open the windows of the 
soul and making the spiritual " living temple " radiant 
with the rays of truth and beauty. His songs were, 
therefore, of the sunshine — of the sunshine that some- 



276 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

times scorched, as when he satirized " The Moral Bully" 
— but oftener inspired cheer, hope, and good-will. 

If it be true that " a good wit will make use of any- 
thing; it will turn diseases to a commodity," the wit of 
Dr. Holmes is among the best. For if it has not turned 
moral and physical diseases to a " commodity " it has 
at least done a great deal toward counteracting their 
effects. " Be cheerful " is one of his prescriptions for 
inducing longevity. This cheerful nature of his poetry 
and philosophy has lulled to serenity many a careworn 
spirit and made easier and lighter many of the burdens 
of life. There are plenty of latter-day philosophers to 
tell us of our faults and short-comings and to denounce 
the sordid and self-seeking tendencies of the time. It 
is a relief to turn to the works of this genial writer, who, 
while venerating what is good in the past, was still in 
full accord with his own age. The Doctor would have 
been justified by truth, even at the expense of modesty 
and rhyme, if he had inserted in the place of the English 
poet's his own name when he wrote : 

" Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels 
When the tired player shuffles off his buskin ; 
A page of Hood may do a fellow good 
After a scolding from Carlyle or Ruskin." 

To say that no humorous poet ever produced uni- 
formly good work is to state a truism applicable to all 
writers of verse. But it is equally true that few writers 
of his century have done well so much work of the 
kind as that which has endeared the " Autocrat " to all 
classes of readers. Many of his puns are outrageous, 
and subject to all the strictures which he himself makes 
against verbicide in literature. Such pieces as "The 
September Gale," "The Ballad of the Oyster-man," 
and " The Spectre Pig " are the merest kind of trifles 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 277 

and could easily be spared. But " The Deacon's Mas- 
ter Piece," " Parson Turell's Legacy," and " Latter-day 
Warnings" are wholesome examples of clear-grained, 
Yankee humor. Because he appreciated humor at its 
true worth, Holmes never allowed it to degenerate into 
buffoonery. 

" If the sense of the ridiculous," he remarks, " is one 
side of an impressible nature, it is very well ; but if that 
is all there is in a man, he had better have been an ape, 
and stood at the head of his profession at once." And 
we can honestly believe his early assertion, — 

" I never dare to write 
As funny as I can." 

It is not only his humor or pathos that has gained 
for Holmes an international reputation. His wisdom 
and his wit were deep enough to leave a permanent 
impression upon the literature of the English language. 
To his association of the names of Franklin and Emer- 
son must now be added his own. Franklin, Emerson, 
and Holmes, each a philosopher in his way, form a trin- 
ity of American writers and thinkers, thoroughly national 
and representative. In some respects Holmes is the 
most attractive of the three. His precepts are equally 
free from the candle-end parsimony which marked the 
philosophy of one, and the extravagance of statement 
which occasionally marred the idealism of the other. 
One source of his great influence was his ability to 
express homely truths in terms of rare grace and beauty. 
He was never at a loss for a fling at upstarts and 
pretenders, but hoary tradition appealed to him in 
vain, if at the expense of truth and manliness. Toward 
all who honestly and earnestly sought his counsel, he 
was the kindest and most considerate of men. To him 



2 78 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

nature was full of beauty, light, and cheer, and he 
sought to impress those qualities upon all his philoso- 
phy in prose and verse. His message to mankind was 
one of hope, courage, and good-will. 

In the eventide of his days, when the Autocrat of 
the Breakfast Table had developed into the Dictator 
over the Teacups, the poet complained that he found 
the burdens and restrictions of rhyme " more and more 
troublesome " as he grew older. Yet he never wrote a 
tenderer tribute in verse than that composed in his 
eighty-fifth year to the memory of the historian, Francis 
Parkman. And certainly no poet but Holmes, and 
Holmes at his best, could metamorphose the trolley 
electric car into a broomstick train, suggesting the 
return of the witches to their old New England haunts. 

Holmes was the earliest of our humorous poets 
who wrote anything fit to live. Striving to be true 
rather than consistent, he has succeeded in giving us 
one of the few original creations of his time. If his 
breakfast-table talks fall short of the platonic sym- 
posium in formulating a system of philosophy, they 
have at any rate enlivened, cheered, and instructed 
three generations of readers. He has relieved our 
national reputation of much of its undue seriousness 
and infused a lighter, sunnier spirit into our literature. 
To have accomplished this, even if he had done noth- 
ing else, would entitle him to a high place among 
the world's benefactors. 

The Autocrat apparently had no thought of his own 
career when he said : " If I were giving advice to a 
young fellow of talent, with two or three facets to his 
mind, I would tell him by all means to keep his wits 
in the background until after he had made a reputation 
by his more solid qualities." As applied to his brother 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 279 

humorist, the remark was suggestive. It was upon his 
"more solid qualities" that Lowell's earlier reputation 
was based, though his lasting fame may rest mainly 
on his humorous and satiric verse. The long narrative 
poem of his early manhood, "A Legend of Brittany," 
is not the kind to be a favorite with posterity. "The 
Vision of Sir Launfal " is a beautiful poem, and deserv- 
edly the most popular of its author's more serious 
efforts, but there is not sufficient originality in it to 
sustain the reputation of a modern poet. Conceding 
the merits of the "Commemoration Ode" and "The 
Cathedral," it must be admitted that other poets have 
excelled these in similar productions. It is in his 
satires that Lowell's creative genius shines the bright- 
est. Herein he at once placed himself abreast of great 
poets. This is a sweeping statement, but justified by 
facts. 

Satire properly directed is and always has been one 
of the functions of poetry, and never has it attained a 
higher standard than in "The Biglow Papers." Wit, 
poetry, sentiment, an exalted ideal of Americanism 
and a contempt of truckling expediency, the love of 
truth and scorn of hypocrisy, mark the individuality of 
these papers. 

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was born at Cam- 
bridge, and died at his ancestral home at Elmwood, 
after a lifelong residence in Massachusetts. His career 
at Harvard was not remarkable for scholarship, and 
when his class graduated in 1838, the young poet and 
future professor was under a cloud. His "Class 
Poem "was printed but not delivered, its author being 
still "in exile." In this, his first important effort, 
never included in his "complete works," the abolition- 
ists and transcendentalists were both held up to ridi- 



28o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

cule. Within a few years its author was to be a 
foremost anti-slavery writer, as well as one of the most 
devoted of Mr. Emerson's admirers. On the first of 
August, 1842, the anniversary of West Indian emanci- 
pation, his poem, "Stanzas to Freedom," was sung at 
Dedham, Massachusetts. The poet had chosen to cast 
in his lot with the few, declaring, — 

" They are slaves that dare not be 
In the right with two or three." 

Lowell's abolition poetry differed essentially from 
that of Whittier. The latter appealed to the moral 
sense of the masses, Lowell to the intellectual sense 
of the cultured. Both were enthusiasts. Longfellow 
made a few passes with his Damascus blade, simply to 
announce his convictions, then sheathed his sword 
and devoted himself to themes of home and peace. 
Lowell anii Whittier slept on their arms, ready to 
spring to action at the first call of duty. In Decem- 
ber, 1844, Lowell threw down the gauntlet and chal- 
lenged the apologists of slavery in the greatest lyric 
inspired by the anti-slavery agitation. The resounding 
rhythm of "The Present Crisis" went ringing through 
the land, sending the blood tingling through men's 
veins, startling the torpid conscience of the country, 
and appealing to all the nobler instincts of humanity. 
It was one of the premonitory warnings of the approach- 
ing upheaval, which many were just beginning to 
foresee. 

But all of Lowell's and Whittier's verses and Garri- 
son's and Phillips's speeches had little effect upon the 
politicians at Washington. In 1846 war, so unjust in 
its origin, yet so far-reaching in its results, was de- 
clared with Mexico. In May was fought the battle of 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 281 

Palo Alto, and soon after, the call for volunteers was 
issued. One response to this call appeared in the 
Boston "Courier." It was in the shape of a letter 
dated, " Jaylem, June, 1846," enclosing a poem written 
by " Hosea Biglow " on the subject of the recruiting. It 
was the voice of the rural North, not yet lulled to 
silence by the commercial plea of expediency, that 
spoke through those twenty stanzas of sarcasm and 
denunciation. 

Never before in our history was witnessed such a 
literary revolution as was created by "The Biglow 
Papers." The arguments of satire and mockery, which 
had so long been employed against the reformers, was 
turned with telling force against their aspersers. Well 
directed ridicule is always a keen weapon, but never 
more effective than when turned against vice and truc- 
ulency. The political cant of the day masquerading 
under the allusions to "manifest destiny," "the exten- 
sion of freedom's area," and other euphemisms in de- 
fence of an unjust war, were exposed in all their 
contemptible weakness. " Hosea Biglow " leaped into 
fame at once, and many were the speculations as to his 
identity. He was the impersonation of the honest, 
homespun sentiment of the plain, common people. 
That he reflected the opinions of the masses in the free 
states was shown by his instant popularity. The dia- 
lect form of the verse only increased the verisimilitude. 

American dialect verse was by no means original 
with Lowell, but it reached its highest degree of per- 
fection in his satiric verse. He was the first of our 
writers who raised it to the dignity of true poetry. 
His intuitive perception of the Yankee character of 
half a century ago enabled him to interpret that char- 
acter truly and appreciatively. Hosea himself is but a 



282 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

reproduction of the "up-country man" such as Mr. 
Lowell had often seen at anti-slavery meetings, — 
"capable of district-school English, but always instinc- 
tively falling back into the natural stronghold of his 
homely dialect when heated to the point of self-forget- 
fulness. " With Americans of that class the phrase- 
ology of the Bible was familiar from infancy, and the 
homely directness of their speech on sacred subjects is 
totally distinct from anything like irreverence. 

It was the profound tone of Puritan idealism, of devo- 
tion to moral principle, regardless of any claims of ex- 
pediency, that underlay the cutting irony, and made 
these taunts and flings sting like lashes of the Eumen- 
ides. Serious poetry, like that of Pierpont, Whittier, 
and earlier lyrics of Lowell himself, might elicit admi- 
ration, but made few converts. But here was a cham- 
pion who made scorners and scoffers themselves the 
butt of scorn and scoffing. Even the politicians could 
not fail to appreciate the change in the situation. The 
art of these effusions was beginning to tell with the 
voters. Freedom was becoming popular. Northern 
doughfaces brought round with a sharp turn began to 
realize the absurdity of their frantic effort to face " south 
by north." The revulsion in public feeling is shown 
by the enormous sale of the work after its publication 
in book form in 1848. It was read even by its ene- 
mies, found its way across the sea, was quoted in Par- 
liament, and illustrated by Cruikshank. It forced 
itself into channels formerly inaccessible to anti-slavery 
literature, and prepared the public mind in this coun- 
try for the reception of Mrs. Stowe's still more popular, 
but artistically less praiseworthy, work four years later. 

There are but nine of these " papers " inspired by 
events connected with the Mexican war and written at 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 283 

intervals during the two years of that contest. For a 
right understanding of the issues involved, as regarded 
from the anti-slavery point of view, these poems of wit 
and sarcasm answer all the purposes of an elaborate 
history. They are contemporary chronicles composed 
by one of the shrewdest and wisest men of his time. 
The creatures of the poet's brain are silhouetted upon 
his page not more strongly than the few historic per- 
sons, whose imaginary but typical sayings have become 
so unpleasantly notorious. 

Lowell has given no evidence of possessing the 
faculty for story writing that characterizes his brother 
satirist. Such prose fictions as *' Elsie Venner " or 
" The Guardian Angel " would have been impossible to 
him. Yet in the annals of fiction there is no better 
delineated character than Parson Wilbur. His person- 
ality is much more distinct than that of Hosea himself. 
The simple-hearted, patriotic, garrulous, and harmlessly 
egotistic old man captivates us at once. Even his 
pedantry becomes charming in its quaint, old-fashioned 
form of speech. We can forgive his tendency to break 
out in Greek and Latin quotations. The unconscious 
humor that sometimes surprises us in the otherwise 
repellent writings of the early Puritan divines has be- 
come a fixed trait in this their nineteenth century 
representative. 

Shortly after the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. 
Lowell reintroduced his old acquaintances, Wilbur, 
Biglow, and Sawin. In this second series, the farcical, 
mocking tone of the first is subdued by the gravity of 
the situation to almost the intensity of tragedy. There 
is less of mirth and irony, but more of poetry and deep 
feeling. Lowell's patriotism was inflamed by the hos- 
tile attitude of England and her foremost advisers, like 



284 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Gladstone and Earl Russell, and his bitterness found 
unrestrained expression. The astonishment expressed 
by English critics at Mr. Lowell's betrayal of any resent- 
ment at the course of the mother country in our hours 
of trial is surpassed only by that of the English holders 
of Confederate bonds at the refusal of the United States 
government to reimburse them for their unfortunate 
investment. When the asperities of the war had moder- 
ated, the South had no sincerer well-wisher in the 
North, and old England no truer friend in New Eng- 
land, than the author of "The Biglow Papers." 

The sincere regret with which the reader learns of 
the death of Mr. Wilbur is in itself a tribute to the 
good man's memory. The parson's "disease," as Ro- 
sea calls it, occurred on Christmas Day, 1862. "The 
Biglow Papers" without Wilbur's guiding hand would 
be an incongruity, and we hear nothing more from Rosea 
until the dawn of peace, when Mr. Lowell himself, 
speaking through his hero, gives utterance to the 
highest strain that he anywhere attains in his verse. 

For nineteen years our pastoral singer had been a 
close watcher of men and events. Re had received 
vituperation as well as encouragement, but through all 
remained true to the ideal of his youth. From the 
recruiting of the first Massachusetts regiment in 1846, 
in what he considered an unjust cause to the downfall 
of Richmond in 1865, he had scathingly ridiculed and de- 
nounced a democracy controlled by slavery, a theocracy 
that defended the degradation of men and women, and 
a social aristocracy North and South that ostracized 
people for exercising the right of free speech. When 
the long struggle was ended, the minstrel could con- 
front the outlook with feelings of sincere and solemn 
gratitude rather than in a spirit of exultation. As he 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 285 

looks back and thinks of the terrible cost in life on 
both sides, the years of sacrifice and anguish through 
which the result was accomplished, with profound con- 
viction of the fearful meaning of it all, he pours forth 
his soul in that remarkable paean which with so much 
repressed feeling chants the victory of the national 
cause. It is the sentiment of the whole grief-stricken 
people in their hour of dearly bought triumph that finds 
expression through the poet whose own losses in the 
war have intensified his sympathies with the broken 
homes throughout the South as well as the North. 

Here properly ends the series, though one more paper 
is added purporting to be a speech on reconstruction 
delivered by Hosea a year afterward. 

The Yankee pastoral, "The Courtin'," originally 
written to fill a blank page, and which has undergone 
three versions, each an improvement on its predecessor, 
is a pretty picture, appealing to universal sentiment. 
It has no connection whatever with "The Biglow 
Papers" with which it is printed, and is, as already 
stated, but a more refined and poetic rendition of an 
earlier verse-writer's description of a Yankee courtship. 

"The Biglow Papers" are probably the only Ameri- 
can political poems of any length destined to endure. 
Though the events, real and imaginary, which they re- 
count are transient, the wit, philosophy, and poetry are 
perennial, and will in themselves keep alive in the 
popular mind certain episodes that would otherwise be 
preserved only in the memory of the historical student. 

The middle years of the century (i 845-1 865) were 
the most productive in American poetry, but American 
criticism was still crude. Aspiring mediocrity, finding 
itself quietly thrust aside by works of merit, retaliated 
and sought reprisal by attacking successful rivals. 



286 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

This, as well as the superficiality of current criticism, 
as indicated by the anthologies of the period, naturally 
exasperated writers like Lowell and Poe possessing 
genuine talent. The former, in echoing Coleridge as 
well as anticipating Disraeli, bitterly exclaims, — 

" Nature fits all her children with something to do, 
He who would write and can't write can surely review." 

As literature, "A Fable for Critics" (1848), from 
which the above couplet is quoted, is not to be com- 
pared with " The Biglow Papers. " Judging by to-day's 
estimate, Mr. Lowell fairly well anticipated the ver- 
dict of posterity. Possibly he underestimated Bryant, 
Poe, and himself, as he certainly overrated the impor- 
tance of Neal, Briggs, and Judd. His strictures on 
Dana, Cooper, Halleck, and Willis were eminently 
just, as were his tributes to Emerson, Longfellow, 
Hawthorne, Whittier, and Irving. That such a pro- 
duction was needed, any careful student of our literature 
must admit. Poe was lashing himself into a fury over 
the shallow pretenders that were posing as poets, 
romancers, and critics. As in the political contest, wit 
and satire proved better weapons than preaching and 
denunciation. The " Fable " was far more effective in 
exposing the American Scotts, Bulwers, and Disraelis, 
"in short, the American everything elses," than all the 
acrid attacks of Poe on the "literati." 

In "The Unhappy Lot of Mr. Knott" and "An 
Oriental Apologue," our author's rollicking humor 
again asserts itself. In these the follies of "spiritual- 
ists" and whims of theological pietists are assailed. 
There is not much poetry in either of them, but each 
is brimful of humor, puns, good and wretched, old and 
new, ingenious rhymes and witty nonsense. 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 287 

" I, on occasion, too, could preach, but hold it wiser far 
To give the public sermons it will take with its cigar," 

he says in_a poem of which only "fragments" have 
been printed. He was never very solicitous to observe 
"the distinction 'twixt singing and preaching." But 
though his song might turn out a sermon, it was not 
the kind "to turn delight into a sacrifice." 

Because Lowell was such a downright, upright 
American, he resented with indignation all attacks 
upon the honor of his country, more especially when 
such attacks were insidious forms of political corrup- 
tion or vicious legislation. In his later years he cari- 
catured in his verse ring politics, dishonest financiering, 
and literary piracy, as vigorously, if not at such length, 
as he had assailed slavery and its attendant evils. 
These attacks were not so much satirical poems as 
centre shots in the shape of isolated epigrams, or bitter 
reflections injected into his serious verse, as his sug- 
gestions concerning speculation and peculation, his 
motto for the American Copyright League, his refer- 
ence to the office-holder who interprets doing good by 
stealth to mean doing good by stealing, and his char- 
acterization of the political "boss," — 

*' Skilled to pull wires, he baiBed Nature's hope, 
Who sure intended him to stretch a rope." 

Yet, in spite of the public scandals for which the 
eighth decade of the century was especially notorious, 
he never lost faith in the land of his birth and of his 
love. His addresses in England, while minister, show 
that his devotion was not dimmed by advancing years. 
And though in a moment of bitter mirth he satirized 
the land of his nativity as " the land of broken prom- 
ise," in a calmer mood he changed the phrase to "land 



288 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of Honest Abraham." Massachusetts had no more 
loyal son than he, and he never wearied of singing her 
praises, though he never could delude himself into 
admiring the New England spring. To him — 

" May is a pious fraud of the almanac, 
A ghastly parody of real spring 
Shaped out of snow and breathed with eastern wind," 

too apt to produce what he calls — 

" . . ..a dank and snuffling day 
That made us bitter at our neighbor's sins," 

and he makes his hero refer to the hard, unattractive 
experience of 

" New England youth, that seems a sort of pill, 
Half wish-I-dared, half Edwards on the Will, 
Bitter to swallow, and which leaves a trace 
Of Calvinistic colic on the face." 

Perhaps the most conspicuous trait that pervades Mr. 
Lowell's poetry is its thoroughly manly tone. No de- 
sire for temporary popularity or mere applause as such, 
seems to influence him in the least. His standard is 
high, but not beyond reach. "No man can produce 
great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing 
with himself," he says in his essay on Rousseau. It 
is this absolute sincerity that stamps his own works 
and captivates the reader. We feel that it is the voice 
of a strong, courageous man speaking through the 
lines. Even the acknowledged harshness of some of 
his verse is due to the subordination of melody to 
strength. Not that he strikes the chords " rudely and 
hard," for they seem to vibrate only to a master hand. 
Energy more than elegance is his characteristic. 

The defects of Mr. Lowell's style need not concern 
us much. They consist chiefly, it may be assumed, in 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 289 

some cacophonious lines, which a slight revision would 
have remedied, occasionally confused metaphors, a 
self-confessed tendency to sermonize, and, more par- 
ticularly in his prose, certain errors of taste, slovenly 
expressions, and carelessly formed sentences. These 
may be left to those critics who judge chiefly by faults. 
As our acknowledged foremost man of letters, he has 
raised the standard of Americanism, has advocated a 
loftier and more rational patriotism, has made political 
chicanery contemptible and ridiculous, and in his own 
career has shown that high intellectual attainments are 
not inconsistent with a lively interest in current polit- 
ical affairs. By his personality he dignified American 
citizenship abroad, and established more cordial rela- 
tions between the two English-speaking nations. If 
not absolutely great as an original or imaginative writer, 
he has honestly earned the distinction of being the 
greatest satiric poet in the English language since the 
days of Pope. 

Lowell was no politician, though there is a great 
deal of politics in his poetry. John G. Saxe (1816- 
1887), on the other hand, was a skilful politician, 
though there is very little politics in his verse. Amer- 
ica has produced so few writers of polished satirical 
poetry that it is something of regret that we note the 
vanishing fame of the last-named writer, whose works 
were once so generally popular. 

Saxe was a native of Vermont and graduated at Mid- 
dlebury college in the class of 1839. For years he held 
a leading place as journalist, politician, lecturer, wit, 
post-prandial poet and general humorist. His literary 
career began in 1841, when, while yet a struggling 
young attorney, he published in "The Knickerbocker 
Magazine" his ballad, "The Briefless Barrister." 

19 



290 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

This was soon followed by his still more popular 
"Rhyme of the Rail." These two clever lyrics, if 
none of his others, are likely to survive and preserve 
the name of Saxe among our humorous poets. 

In 1846 Saxe delivered a poem before his college on 
the somewhat familiar subject of "Progress." The 
degeneracy of their own times has been a favorite with 
poets from the days of Job, and it cannot be said that 
Saxe, in his praise of times past, has added anything 
new or important. Yet it was one of the most success- 
ful poems of the generation. It furnished numerous 
lines for quotation and at once placed the author in 
the front rank of American satirists of the day. To- 
day it reads like a thousand and one similar utterances, 
with its conventional style, its trite epithets and tire- 
some platitudes. Its chief merit is in certain well 
turned couplets more remarkable for polish than depth. 
"The Money King," another satiric poem, is a counter- 
part of "Progress," as hackneyed in theme and execu- 
tion, as graceful and correct in diction, and as super- 
ficial in thought. 

The immediate popularity of his first satires spurred 
the author to new efforts. His writings were always 
in demand. During one period of his life, each year 
witnessed the production of a new and rather long 
humorous poem. While occupied with the varied pur- 
suits of his active career, he still found time to write a 
multitude of lyrics, ballads, sonnets, translations, 
travesties, and legendary verses. 

In his after-dinner poem, recited before the Psi 
Upsilon fraternity in New York in 1874, he regards 
the encroachment of age in a spirit of good-natured 
banter, suggestive of many of Dr. Holmes' "reunion" 
verses. This poem, bubbling over with fun and good 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 291 

spirits, comes as the last message from the genial 
singer to congenial friends. One couplet is especially 
significant^ — 

" Is he old who owes nothing to fraudulent art ? 
Above all is he old who is young at the heart? " 

For alas ! " the same scourge whips the joker and 
the enjoyer of the joke." Not long after the delivery 
of these lines, Mr. Saxe, while on a lecturing tour in 
Virginia, was the victim of a serious railway accident. 
The shock to his nervous system was such that the re- 
sulting illness lasted the remaining thirteen years of 
his life. A series of afflictions seems to have entirely 
reversed his naturally cheerful and buoyant disposition. 
Shortly after his accident, his wife, so tenderly re- 
ferred to in many of his poems, died and was followed 
in quick succession by their three daughters and eldest 
son. The poet's mind weakened under the strain, and 
the "young in heart " suddenly became prematurely old 
in spirit, and was virtually dead to the rest of mankind. 
The once bright and sunny-natured man, who had 
done so much to lighten life's burdens for others, 
became a recluse, the subject of a brooding melan- 
choly, his personality almost forgotten by the great 
world outside that had so often laughed at his jokes 
and applauded his wit. 

There was a time when Saxe might have disputed 
with Lowell and Holmes the leadership in American 
satire. That he has been so easily passed in the long 
run by these two, and by younger writers, is not at all 
surprising. The impression that he made upon our 
literature was but transient. He has left us no genuine 
masterpiece of literary art. As intimated, his verse 
is polished, clear-cut, and refined. But it is lacking in 



292 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

originality, creative force, and imaginative power. 
He satirized social follies, but was always on the pop- 
ular side. He never risked his popularity in attacking 
popular wrongs. He aimed to please, and that was all. 
His "occasional" poems challenge comparison with 
those of Dr. Holmes to their own disadvantage. While 
it would be manifestly unfair to contrast his " My Boy- 
hood" with Hood's "I remember, I remember," we 
cannot see that his initial poem "The Poet's License" 
is any improvement upon "The Poet's Portion" of the 
English poet. His frank admission that "The Proud 
Miss MacBride" is "(longo intervallo) after the man- 
ner of Hood's incomparable 'Golden Legend,'" will 
hardly justify his repeated imitations of that poet's 
attitude toward literature and life. Of his longer 
poems, "Miss MacBride" alone is endowed with any- 
thing like longevity. Some of its satire is as appli- 
cable to-day as when first written, notably the merited 
flagellation of " American aristocracy : " 

" Of all the notable things on earth, 
The queerest one is pride of birth, 
Among our ' fierce Democracie ! ' 
A bridge across a hundred years, 
Without a prop to save it from sneers, 
Not even a couple of rotten Peers 
A thing for laughter, fleers and jeers, 
Is American aristocracy." 

Wherein Saxe most excels is his sharp turn of wit 
that compresses a satire within a single sentence. He 
is perhaps the brightest epigrammatist that we have 
produced. He has given us some excellent para- 
phrases from the epigrams of Martial, and some of his 
own are perfect. There are a number of these not in- 
cluded in his "complete works," but too good to be 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 293 

lost in the columns of defunct magazines and forgotten 
journals. The legal profession has contributed largely 
to epigrammatic literature, but there are none better 
than Saxe's "On an Ill-Read Lawyer," "On a Famous 
Water Suit," and "Nemo Repente Turpissimus." 
It is not clear why the collection of epigrams at the 
end of his volume omits one of his best, — that sug- 
gested by the common-law rule prohibiting married 
women from making wills : 

" Men, dying, make their wills, but wives 
Escape a work so sad ; 
Why should they make what all their lives 
The gentle dames have had ? " 

In social life, Saxe is said to have been one of the 
wittiest of men. There are many traditions of his 
conversational humor, and brilliant repartees. That 
his personality was greater than his written words is 
manifest by the diminishing circle of his readers. 
Whether or not he cared for posthumous fame, he had 
his full share of contemporaneous applause. 

The follies and extravagances of our fashionable 
city life offer a tempting field to the satirist. As a 
rule most of the attempts in that direction have been 
failures, marked chiefly by coarseness and an igno- 
rance of the life attempted to be ridiculed. Saxe was 
only measurably successful in his flings at the vulgari- 
ties of certain "new rich." In the deeper touches of 
feeling his " Miss MacBride " falls short of the object 
attained by that other ballad of Gotham life, "Nothing 
to Wear." The author of the latter, Mr. William 
Allen Butler, was born in Albany in 1825, and grad- 
uated at the New York University in the class of 1843. 
While a young man he wrote a series of sketches called 
"The Colonel's Club," whose humor foreshadowed 



294 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

something of the future satirist. In 1850 he published 
"Barnum's Parnassus," a satirical work purporting to 
contain selections from "leading American Poets," 
which has long been out of print. He has given us at 
least three satiric poems of real power. " Nothing to 
Wear," from its first publication in "Harpers' Maga- 
zine" in 1857, has had a remarkable career. It was 
complimented by a number of parodies, was plagiarized 
and stolen outright, and translated into at least two 
continental languages. Its title has added a popular ex- 
pression to our language; and its heroine has taken 
her place among the recognized creations of standard 
fiction. 

Yet in all the essentials of satiric verse, Butler's 
"Two Millions" and "General Average" outrank the 
more popular poem. The darker side of business life, 
such as must of necessity obtrude itself upon the notice 
of a successful city lawyer, is mercilessly depicted. In 
"Two Millions" the subject is the sordid, worldly 
minded millionaire, without an aspiration above his 
business, to whom public spirit and charitable instincts 
are strangers because they never put a dollar in his 
pocket (" and very seldom took a dollar out "). 

" General Average " has to do with a well known 
principle in the law of shipping and is descriptive of 
a contest between greed and treachery, — a case of 
fraud on both sides, — 

" When truth stepped aside, and conscience withdrew, 
To leave a clear field for Yankee and Jew," 

in which the latter comes out second best. 

The sum of Mr. Butler's satiric work is light. 
Others will doubtless go over the same field at greater 
length. As it is, he must be recognized as the ablest 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 295 

satirist of metropolitan life and society that New York 
has yet produced. 

It was in "The Atlantic Monthly" for November, 
1857, that "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" 
made his bow to the public, and began that series of 
table talk that has edified and amused countless readers. 
In the corresponding number of " Harpers " Mr. Butler 
introduced his capricious heroine in her unhappy plight 
of possessing "nothing to wear," and in an early num- 
ber of "Graham's Magazine" during the same year, a 
now notorious character made his debut at " Hans Breit- 
mann's Barty." Whatever credit is due to an origi- 
nator should be awarded to the creator of this bibulous 
Teuton. Charles Godfrey Leland was born in Phila- 
delphia in 1824 and graduated at Princeton in the class 
of 1846. When Longfellow published his first volume 
of poems in 1839, some of Leland's verses had been 
already printed in the newspapers. One day, while 
editing "Graham's Magazine," there being space to 
fill, Mr. Leland, in a hurry, " knocked off ' Hans Breit- 
mann's Barty.' " It was extensively copied and made 
its way across the ocean. "I little dreamed," writes 
Mr. Leland, "that in days to come I should be asked 
in Egypt and on the blue Mediterranean, and in every 
country in Europe, if I was its author." "I wrote in 
those days," he adds, "a vast number of such anony- 
mous drolleries, many of them, I dare say, quite as 
good, in ' Graham's Magazine ' and the ' Weekly Bulle- 
tin, ' etc., but I took no heed of them. They were 
probably appropriated in due time by the authors of 
' Beautiful Snow. ' " 

Much of Mr. Leland's serious verse, to use his own 
criticism, is a "wild mixture of cosmopolitanism and 
Hamletism." His other dialect poems fail to interest, 



296 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

but these German-English ballads, interpretative of a 
phase of American life, were a new creation, though 
since their first appearance our literature has become 
infested with a heterogeneous brood of imitations, 
utterly devoid of the humor and satire of the original. 

In his appearance as a roistering captain in the 
Union army several years after the "barty," Hans is 
hardly the ideal patriot or warrior, though he is said to 
have been drawn from life. "Breitmann's Going to 
Church " is probably the best of these war ballads, and 
is infused with genuine poetry. " Breitmann in Poli- 
tics " is in the line of broad farce, but is easily among 
the best of our political burlesques. 

Leland has imbibed deeply from the founts of Ger- 
man literature and philosophy. He can thoroughly 
sympathize with a most important class of our foreign- 
born citizens, whose conduct of life enables them, amid 
most untoward circumstances, still to ^^ enjoy, when 
other men would probably despair. " The best tribute 
to his success is the hearty appreciation of these ballads 
by "educated and intelligent Germans." 

The author of " Hans Breitmann" has been so suc- 
cessful as a humorist that his readers seem loath to take 
him seriously, and have never given much attention to 
even such meritorious work as "Frangipani," "The 
Music Lesson of Confucius," and "The Fall of the 
Trees." His prose writings, it must be confessed, are 
frequently marred by strained efforts to be "funny," 
and by flippancies and extravagances that are neither 
wise nor witty. 

For a so-called grave nation, the quantity of our 
humorous verse is remarkable, but the great mass of it 
is too ephemeral to deserve discussion. The social, 
political and esthetic conditions of American life offer 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 297 

special temptations to a keen satirist. Political bun- 
combe was appropriately handled by "Hosea Biglow," 
and in at least one instance properly lampooned by the 
author of "Hans Breitmann." Intellectual pretences 
have been ridiculed by Holmes, and social hypocrisies 
exposed by Saxe and Butler. Aside from the works of 
these writers, the bulk of American satire during the 
fifty years preceding the close of the Civil War was by 
disappointed authors in ridicule of successful rivals. 

As early as 1820 Robert Wain (1794-1825), of Phil- 
adelphia, published his "American Bards," a satire. 
"Truth, a New Year's Gift for Scribblers" was written 
in 1832 by W. J. Snelling (i 804-1 848), whose Indian 
poem, "The Birth of Thunder," may still be found in 
the anthologies; Laughton Osborn (1809-1878), men- 
tioned in a previous chapter, wrote, among other things, 
his "Vision of Rubeta" (1838), a tedious tirade against 
the public press, consisting of over thirty-two hundred 
lines, and which Poe declared to be the best American 
satire yet written. The "Quacks of Helicon" (1841), 
by L. A. Whitmer (1805-1863), was a bitter and in- 
discriminate denunciation of American verse-writers. 
Even its title would have been long since forgotten had 
it not been for the eulogistic notice by Edgar Poe. 
"The Poets and Poetry of America" (1847) was some- 
what above the average. It was directed against Dr. 
Griswold's compilation, and a plausible argument has 
been written to prove it the work of Poe himself. The 
objection to all of these and similar productions is that 
the intended sarcasm is lost in the violence of invective. 
They all indicate a strained, self-conscious, imitative 
attitude fatal to that class of literature. Dr. Gris- 
wold may have been smarting under the sense of per- 
sonal insult when he wrote "the disease of the satiric 



298 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

muse in this country has been spleen." Yet, 
after making due allowances, his characterization 
was just. In pure burlesque, as distinguished from 
satire, we have not fared much better. Our comic 
poetry for the most part has not survived its first 
utterance. 

Humor is aptly defined by Mr. Stedman as the 
"overflow of genius." It is possible that the pent-up 
forces of our national life have not yet had sufficient 
outlet. We are constantly informed that Americans 
do not understand the uses of recreation, that they 
take even their pleasures sadly. This is certainly not 
due to inability to appreciate humor, for Americans 
are proverbially inclined to look at the ludicrous side 
of things. Hence it is the more remarkable that dur- 
ing the most productive period of our literature humor- 
ous poets were so few in number. These few, however, 
have written sufficient to prove that there is such a 
thing as genuine humor in our poetry; sufficient to 
prove, too, that American humor is not necessarily to 
be associated with exaggeration, flippancy, and irrev- 
erence, and that refinement and a high order of excel- 
lence are conspicuous traits of our most representative 
satirists. Clownishness and vulgarity will continue to 
appeal with success as they have done for ages past, 
and will be read only to be forgotten. But purity and 
high purpose in humor, as anything good in letters, is 
bound to survive. Our humorous literature has suffered 
in common with the rest. The attempts to be truly 
American, resulting for the most part in bad spelling 
and oddness in expression, are now happily as obsolete 
as strained efforts in more serious branches. Bad Eng- 
lish has long since ceased to be the essential badge of 
good Americanism. With Holmes and Lowell at the 



HUMOR AND SATIRE 299 

head, and Saxe, Butler, and Leland following, besides 
others of a later period, not properly to be discussed in 
this chapter, it may be fairly claimed that our best 
humorous and satiric verse is a true reflex of our 
national character. 



CHAPTER XIII 

IDEALISM AND REALISM 

1836-1870 

r I ^HE second decade of the nineteenth century wit- 
^i- nessed a remarkable awakening of spiritual 
energy in New England. The "liberal wing of the 
Congregationalists " had drifted into Unitarianism, and 
as early as 18 15 the breach with orthodoxy was com- 
plete. But the revolt ceased not there. Unitarianism 
itself was destined to become too orthodox for the more 
advanced element. The intelligent study of foreign 
masters and thinkers was stirring the sluggard intellect 
of the country and giving an impetus to thought and 
conduct that sorely perplexed conservative and respec- 
table dulness>! 

i In philosophy, as in literature, we had not yet sepa- 
rated from the mother-country, In spite of Coleridge's 
labors in England, the principles of Locke and Bentham 
remained practically unquestioned among us. The in- 
tellect of Germany was the entering wedge that was to 
split American thought from its servile adherence to 
English models. (American scholars, like Edward 
Everett, after long sojourns abroad, returned with the 
fruits of European culture.) Longfellow was the first 
to infuse, to any appreciable extent, the German spirit 
into our poetry, as is manifest in his first volume of 
verse. Goethe, Kant, and Hegel were destined indi- 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 301 

rectly to exert an influence upon American thought 
unprecedented outside of that hitherto exercised by the 
literature of England. It was due to this influence of 
German philosophy, as much as to any one cause, that 
American literature cut its leading strings and asserted 
its right to be. 

About the same time that Edward Everett returned 
from Germany (1820), Dr. Channing was bringing his 
eloquence to bear in uprooting established prejudices 
and revivifying the moribund theology of the day. It 
was the renaissance of conscience from a long period 
of sloth and inanity. Out of all the conflicting forces 
of the time there emerged the subtlest intellect that 
America has given to the world, the flowering of long 
generations of American scholarship and breeding, the 
most fitting embodiment of American thought, eman- 
cipated and disenthralled. The greatest esthetic 
triumph of American democracy was typified in the 
person of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). 

To trace the genesis of American "transcendental- 
ism " to its primal springs, it would be necessary to 
study the history of Puritanism from its origin. One 
of its literary progenitors may be said to have had its 
birth in the year that Emerson was born. The need 
of a periodical, aiming at a high standard of literary 
excellence, unhampered by sectarianism, was early felt. 
A quarterly, called "The Literary Miscellany," was 
begun in 1803 at Harvard, including among its contrib- 
utors John Quincy Adams, Andrews Norton, and Joseph 
S. Buckminster. The name was shortly afterward 
changed to "The Monthly Anthology," and its office 
removed to Boston. It was published under the aus- 
pices of the Anthology Club, composed of some of the 
leading New England thinkers of the day. Channing, 



302 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Norton, Buckminster, and William Emerson, the poet's 
father, frequently contributed. The tone of the publi- 
cation, which lasted about eight years, was " liberal " 
throughout, and did much to stimulate the drift of the- 
ological opinion at the time. It was this club that, at 
the suggestion of William Emerson, established a 
library of periodical literature, which proved to be the 
nucleus of the Boston Athenseum.^ 

A quarter of a century later the "Transcendental 
Club " held its first meeting at the house of Mr. George 
Ripley, in Boston, September 19, 1836. Among the 
distinguished members of the club, besides Emerson 
and Ripley, were A. Bronson Alcott, F. H. Hedge, 
J. Freeman Clarke, C. A. Bartol, O. A. Brownson, 
Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, and Miss Elizabeth 
Peabody. The old spirit of Calvinism, typified in the 
elder Beecher, was on the wane. Norton and Channing 
were the most conspicuous representatives of the new 
faith. The tendencies of current theology were the 
frequent subject of discussion before the club. 

" To show how the topics about which I have been 
speaking interested the club," Mr. Alcott writes, "in 
May, 1838, the same company again met, and we dis- 
cussed the question, ' Is Mysticism an Element of 
Christianity? ' That question touched the seat and root 
of things. Jones Very's ' Poems and Essays ' were 
published in September, 1839; very significant they 
were, too; as if in answer to the inquiry whether 
Mysticism was an element of Christianity, here was 
an illustration of it in a living person, himself present 
at the club. They are very remarkable poems and 
essays. There had been nothing printed until ' Nature, ' 
unless it may have been Mr. Sampson Reed's little 

1 George W. Cook's Life of Emerson, p. 14. 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 303 

book, called 'The Growth of the Mind,' which had 
intimated genius of the like subtle, chaste, and simple 
quality." 

The "new views," as they were termed, of the Tran- 
scendentalists were not new, but simply a rehabilita- 
tion of old truths long since lost sight of. The theory 
of innate ideas, "transcending the senses and under- 
standing," as opposed to the experimental theories of 
Locke, received new significance. Intuitive notions of 
right and wrong, the impressions of conscience, were 
exalted above the dogmatics of the most revered 
teachers. Above and beyond the warnings of hoary 
tradition, appealed the voice of nature in the human 
soul. "God is, not was," seemed to be the watchword 
of the new Puritan revolt. 

"Our age," wrote Emerson in 1836, "is retrospec- 
tive. It builds the sepulchres of our fathers. It writes 
biographies, history, and criticism. The foregoing 
generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, 
through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an 
original relation to the universe.? Why should not we 
have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tra- 
dition, and a religion of revelation to us, and not th& 
history of theirs } Embosomed for a season in nature, 
whose floods of life stream around and through us and 
invite us, by the powers they supply, to action propor- 
tioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry 
bones of the past, or put the living generation into 
masquerade out of its faded wardrobe.'' The sun 
shines to-day, also. There is more wool and flax in 
the fields. There are new lands, new men, new 
thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws 
and worship." 

How or by whom the term " Transcendentalists "was 



304 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

first applied to these New England reformers is a 
matter of no importance. The movement itself was 
but another exhibition of the Puritan spirit, that from 
its inception had an uncomfortable habit of breaking 
out in transitory eruptions in the shape of protests 
against what seemed to be improper tendencies. 
"What is popularly called Transcendentalism among 
us," said Mr. Emerson, "is Idealism, — Idealism as it 
appears in 1842." 

As opposed to the materialist, basing his theories on 
fact and the animal wants of man, the idealist insists 
on "the power of Thought and of Will, on inspiration, 
on miracle, on individual culture. This way of think- 
ing," he adds, "falling on Roman times, made Stoic 
philosophers; falling on despotic times, made patriot 
Catos and Brutuses; falling on superstitious times, 
made prophets and apostles; on popish times, made 
Protestants and ascetic monks, preachers of Faith 
against preachers of Works ; on prelatical times, made 
Puritans and Quakers; and falling on Unitarian and 
commercial times, makes the peculiar shades of Ideal- 
ism which we know." Emerson himself disclaimed 
the possibility of such a thing as pure transcendental- 
ism, though, as he asserted, the conversation and 
poetry of the day were deeply coloured by the tendency 
to respect intuitions, and predicted that the history of 
the genius and religion of the time would be the his- 
tory of that tendency. 

The idealism was but the legitimate development of 
the doctrines of Peter Bulkeley, Emerson's earliest 
American ancestor, shorn of Puritan bigotry and super- 
stition. It was a revived form of Puritan aspiration 
toward an ideal, though against the ascetic spirit of 
the old had reacted the esthetic spirit of the new. 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 305 

The laureate of Puritanism in the seventeenth century 
embodied his convictions in the query, — 

" F«r what is beauty but a faded flower ? 
Or what is pleasure but the Devil's bait, 
Whereby he catcheth whom he would devour, 
And multitudes of souls doth ruinate ? " 

For the modern idealist nature with all her lavish 
gifts inspires serenest pleasure, and it is sufficient to 
know that " Beauty is its own excuse for being. " 

Humor seems to be an essential part of Nature's 
plans. The sombre dramatic effects of all great refor- 
matory movements are relieved by the vagaries of 
enthusiasts, that, like the clowns of Shakspere's trage- 
dies, act as foils to the pervading solemnity. The so- 
called transcendental movement produced its share of 
idealists run mad, in whose muddled consciousness 
" intuitive ideas " were hopelessly confused with a form 
of shallow self-conceit. Against this superficial and 
unthinking radicalism came the calm warning from the 
chief prophet of the movement. His opening remarks 
in his lecture of March 3, 1844, show that he was still 
treading upon solid ground, while some of his converts 
and devotees were revelling in the frenzy of their newly- 
developed "ideas." These, in their ambitious efforts 
to hitch their wagon to a star, became hopelessly in- 
volved in the nebulous mists of abstract theorizing and 
speculation, in which the principles of common-sense 
were completely ignored. They furnished a little 
harmless amusement for the time, but soon passed out 
of the public mind. 

Naturally, such independent thinkers as the genuine 
modern idealists, as distinguished from the irresponsi- 
ble camp-followers, needed some " organ " in which 
their views could be promulgated, if not systematized. 



3o6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

No two of these earnest reformers seemed to think alike 
on any one subject, and a unity of design was out of the 
question. Still, it was necessary to have some vehicle 
for the expression of views, however discordant. After 
much thought and careful preparation, a quarterly peri- 
odical was launched upon the reading world. The 
prospectus was dated, "Boston, May 4, 1840," and 
among other things announced, " 'The Dial,' as its title 
indicates, will endeavor to occupy a position upon 
which the light may fall; which is open to the rising 
sun ; and from which it may correctly report the prog- 
ress of the hour and the day." It came into being 
under the guidance of Margaret Fuller as editor, Mr. 
George Ripley being for a short time editorial contrib- 
utor. It was devoted to literature, philosophy, and 
religion. The contributors were all young, ardent, 
enthusiastic reformers. It was intended to be the 
exponent of the "new thought." 

The progress recorded by "The Dial," however, was 
not all hours of sunshine. Its utterances were fear- 
less, and therefore, at the time, unpopular. It was the 
literary Winkelried that, gathering to itself the shafts 
of ridicule, abuse, and calumny, valiantly fought its 
way through the ranks of hostile criticism. Its marked 
independence and individuality were especially shock- 
ing to that class of literati who, basking in the sunshine 
of tradition and convention, stand aghast at the bold- 
ness of self-asserting genius. From the start its tone 
was high, especially in poetry and criticism. A jour- 
nal which gave to the world much that has since taken 
high rank in American classics had certainly estab- 
lished its right to be. Its initial number was the first 
to publish the most perfect of Emerson's poems, "The 
Problem." 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 307 

" The Dial " was not a financial or popular success. 
As in the case of other high-class periodicals of the 
time, its career was a continual struggle for life. After 
two years of precarious existence, its editor was ready 
to abandon it in despair, when Mr. Emerson came to 
her relief, and at considerable personal sacrifice, as- 
sumed editorial control, presiding over its destinies 
until it expired, at the end of its fourth year, July, 
1844. Cold as was its reception, its influence upon our 
literature was pronounced. It was the first literary 
magazine of high rank infused by a truly American 
spirit. In discarding traditions of the past, it appealed 
to the untrammelled conscience, and earnestly strove 
for the upbuilding of individuality and self-reliance, as 
opposed to the prevalent spirit of dependence and imi- 
tation. As Colonel T. W. Higglnson has wisely said, 
" Behind all the catchwords, and even cant, if you 
please, of the * Transcendentalists, ' lay the fact that 
they looked immediately around them for their stimu- 
lus, their scenery, their illustrations, and their proper- 
ties. After fifty years of national life, the skylark 
and nightingale were at last dethroned from our litera- 
ture, and in the very first volume of " The Dial " the 
blue-bird and the wood-thrush took their place. Since 
then they have held their own; birds and flowers are 
recognized as a part of the local coloring; not as 
mere transportable property, to be brought over by 
emigrants in their boxes, and good only as having 
crossed the ocean. Americans still go to England to 
hear the skylark, but Englishmen also come to America 
to hear the bobolink." ^ 

In the spring of 1841 Mr. Ripley abandoned his con- 
nection with "The Dial" to organize another project 

1 Life of Margaret Fuller, p. 136. 



3o8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

f 

which is popularly identified with the '^'Transcendental " 
movement. This was the establishment of Brook Farm, 
at West Roxbury, near Boston. In its inception noth- 
ing could be further from its design than the commun- 
istic theories vaguely associated with its memory. It 
was simply an attempt to reduce to practice the ideas 
of intellectual and domestic life then agitating the 
thinking world of America and England. Though 
generally regarded as a phase of "Transcendentalism," 
it should be remembered that foremost leaders of the 
"Transcendentalists," like Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, 
and Margaret Fuller, were never members of the 
"community," while some of the active members, not- 
ably Hawthorne, George W. Curtis, and Charles A. 
Dana, were not particularly identified with the fol- 
lowers of Emerson and his doctrines. The Brook Farm 
experiment, at the end of six years, culminated in 
financial disaster. Emerson, although an occasional 
visitor, never felt much confidence in it, and the appre- 
hensions that he early expressed as to its practicability 
were more than realized. The prominence of the par- 
ties engaged in it gave it a world-wide fame, and the 
spiritualizing genius of Hawthorne has, perhaps, im- 
mortalized it ; but it can hardly be said to have accom- 
plished anything toward the reformation of society. 
The times were not ripe for a modern Arcadia, and the 
sterile soil of W^est Roxbury was not propitious to 
idealized farming. 

Biographers of Emerson delight to dwell upon the 
peculiarly American caste of his ancestry, whose his- 
tory is in a great degree the history of the development 
of New England thought. The Emerson family has 
contributed at least fifty graduates to New England 
colleges, of whom twenty were ministers. It may be 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 309 

added that his mother's family were noted for a "re- 
markable spirituality of temperament, for great relig- 
ious zeal, and were naturally mystics or pietists."^ 
The facts of his uneventful life may be summed up in 
a few words: He was born in Boston, May 25, 1803; 
attended school in his native city, and graduated from 
Harvard with the class of 1821. After graduation he 
taught school under Dr. Channing, studied divinity in 
1829, became the associate, and shortly after, the suc- 
cessor of Henry Ware, Jr., in the pastorate of the 
Second Church of Boston. It was here that he so far 
defied public opinion as to allow anti-slavery orators to 
speak from his pulpit. In 1832, declining to conform 
to even the liberal tenets of his church, he resigned, 
though he continued to preach for several years. He 
made his first visit to Europe in 1833. In the follow- 
ing year he removed to his ancestral home at Concord, 
the " Old Manse," since made world-renowned by Haw- 
thorne. Purchasing a place of his own in that village, 
he there made his home for over forty years. It was 
while living at the " Manse " that he wrote his booklet, 
"Nature" (1836), in which he sounded the key-note of 
his philosophy. He made a lecturing trip to England 
in 1847, and a third visit in 1872. During his earlier 
visits he formed the acquaintance of Coleridge, Words- 
worth, Carlyle, and other celebrities. In 1874 he was 
theunsuccessful candidate against Benjamin Disraeli for 
the rectorship of Glasgow University. His life was that 
of a man of letters, serene, yet immensely potent. He 
was a devout champion of the rights of man, a constitu- 
tional dissenter, but avoiding polemics; the gentlest of 
iconoclasts, the most practical of optimists, the most 
conservative of radicals, the most magnetic of reformers. 

1 Cooke's Life of Emerson, p. 14. 



3IO HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

There was plenty in his first volume of poems (1846) 
for the routine critic to pounce upon and ridicule. The 
boldness, carelessness of form, idealism, and frequent 
obscurity of his verse astonished the Philistines. The 
American reviewer, taking his cues from transatlantic 
writers, would, for the most part, find little to approve. 
So opposed to prevailing fashions were these utterances, 
so original and yet so wise their underlying ideas, as 
sorely to perplex the literary Rhadamanthus, prone to 
measure everything by the square and line of recognized 
"canons of taste." Thoughtful readers were not lack- 
ing, however, who appreciated the depth, the music, 
the significance of these mystic songs. Their theme 
and sentiment were fresh and unhackneyed, though they 
were almost entirely lacking in the warmth and passion 
of popular verse. It was a prolific period in American 
poetry, having produced much that was both new and 
beautiful, but nothing so original, so self-sustaining, 
so free from foreign influence. Here was American 
poetry that was neither imitative nor feeble. Its spirit 
was oracular without aggressiveness; broadly humanita- 
rian, but free from that spirit of boastfulness still 
associated with notions of "nationalism." 

Thirteen years after the collapse of "The Dial" 
public taste had been so far developed as to justify the 
establishment of a periodical of the highest class. It 
is doubtful if "The Atlantic Monthly" would have 
been much more successful than its feeble predecessor, 
if published in 1840. But appealing to a larger audi- 
ence, and occupying a broader field, its appearance was 
one of the epochal events in our literary history. Its 
opening number (November, 1857) contained the first 
instalment of Holmes' "Autocrat," and contributions 
by Prescott, Motley, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 311 

Trowbridge, Mrs. Stowe, Rose Terry, and Charles 
Eliot Norton, besides a little group of verses entitled, 
respectively, "The Romany Girl," "The Chartist's 
Complaint," "Days," and "Brahma." All the articles 
were then published anonymously, but no signa- 
ture was necessary to identify the authorship of these 
four poems. The Emersonian flavor was clearly per- 
ceptible, and at least one of them obtained imme- 
diate notoriety, if not fame. Witlings made haste to 
advertise their ignorance by ridiculing and parodying 
"Brahma," unconscious that it was but a reproduction, 
in Emersonian language, of passages in one of the 
world's classics. 

Emerson made no pretence to the establishment of a 
philosophic system. In one of his early essays he 
frankly declared: "I own I am gladdened by seeing 
the predominance of the saccharine principle through- 
out vegetable nature, and not less by beholding in 
morals that unrestrained inundation of the principle of 
good into every chink and hole that selfishness has left 
open, yea, into selfishness and sin itself; so that no 
evil is pure, nor hell itself without its extreme satis- 
factions. But lest I should mislead any, when I have 
my own head and obey my whims, let me remind the 
reader that I am only an experimenter. Do not set the 
least value on what I do, or the least discredit on what 
I do not, as if I pretended to settle anything as true or 
false. I unsettle all things. No facts are to me 
sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an 
endless seeker, with no past at my back." 

He was the advocate of the individual conscience, 
but it was always on the assumption that the impulses 
of intuition conformed to the principles of high con- 
duct. It is his exalted standard of right living that 



312 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

has distinguished him from those sophists whose theo- 
ries of " intuitive ideas " would dispense with moral 
responsibility. 

The theory that what is regarded as evil must even- 
tually result in good, is older than Christianity. But 
no modern writer has more forcibly expounded it than 
has Emerson. Evil, by its very "ministrations of 
pain," reacts upon itself through universal law. 

It was the finitude of evil, its ultimate tendency to 
react and bless, that Uriel announced, staggering the 
angels themselves by the force of the dogma. 

The force of moral character was always strongly 
urged by Emerson, for, as he expressed it, it is that 
which all men profess to regard, and by their real 
respect for it recommend themselves to each other. 
"It was for good, it is to good, that all works." 
"Morals is the direction of the will on universal ends. 
He is immoral who is acting to any private end." It 
is this moral sentiment that alone is omnipotent, and 
renders man capable of any sacrifice. 

The imagination of Emerson is by turns delicate and 
refined, striking and bold. " Monadnoc " contains 
imaginative passages of such startling originality as, 
were it not for the frequently infelicitous diction, 
would alone make the reputation of a poet. 

The whispering of the pines, the throbbing of the 
ocean, the silence of the mountain, — all have for him 
a deep spiritual meaning. The gladness of the woods 
is an inspiration. 

His devotion to nature is that of a poet rather than 
of a naturalist. He is impatient of botanical pedan- 
tries. For him one hour's communing with nature 
brings more than the ages have recorded in the books. 
All birds he would name without a gun, and leave the 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 313 

loved wood-rose on the stalk. Yet to the teachings of 
geology and evolution in their broadest sense, his mind 
is ever open. It is in Emerson that modern science 
finds tuneful voice. As Shakspere seems to have anti- 
cipated Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the 
blood, so Emerson seems to have anticipated certain 
forms of the doctrine of evolution. His first treatise, 
"Nature," was written before Darwin published his 
first book, and was printed eight years before the 
appearance of the anonymous work, "Vestiges of Crea- 
tion." Throughout this treatise, as well as in his 
earlier addresses and essays, are scattered sentences 
and aphorisms, startling and enigmatical enough when 
first uttered, but which, studied in the light of advanced 
thought during the succeeding half-century, seem like 
veritable revelations. 

It is because of his optimism, his faith and his hope, 
that Emerson has come by many to be regarded as the 
most profoundly American singer yet produced. He 
was the champion of an ideal republicanism, of the 
independence of the mind, the emancipation of the 
soul. His writings give the hint of what the literature 
of democracy is yet to be. It goes without saying that 
he was a patriot to the core. There are critics who 
admit the beauty of his "occasional poems," yet deny 
to them the characteristics of his genius. But surely, 
his "Concord Hymn," his Fourth of July "Ode," his 
"Voluntaries," and his "Boston Hymn," are as genu- 
inely Emersonian as anything that he has written. 

Emerson's enthusiasm for the beautiful was that of a 
mystic and a philosopher, as well as that of a poet. 
Poe himself was not a greater devotee in this respect. 
Beauty, with the latter, was to be sought for the pleas- 
ure to be gained. With Emerson, such pleasure was a 



314 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

mere incident, for with him love, truth, and beauty 
were one. Emerson has left us some beautiful lyrics, 
but his defective versification places him far below Poe, 
so far as mere form is concerned. Poe's favorite angel 
was Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and the 
lyrist's whole being thrilled in unison with the high- 
born melody. Emerson's ideal was Uriel, the angel 
of light, who dared proclaim the truth, though gods 
and angels should protest, and even if "the balance 
beam of Fate was bent," and "the bounds of good and 
ill were rent. " Poe denounced Emerson for his " Tran- 
scendentalism," though the great lyrist's prose-poem, 
"Eureka," contained more "transcendental nonsense" 
than can be found in all the twelve volumes of Mr. 
Emerson's works. It is noteworthy, also, that Mr. 
Emerson, in his "Parnassus," could find no place for 
the author of "The Raven." 

Acknowledged defects of Emerson's style are obscur- 
ity, vagueness, and apparent inconsecutiveness. Per- 
haps all this is the natural result of one of his chief 
virtues. He is a master of compression. His shrewd 
observations, tersely uttered, have enriched the world's 
store of proverbial sayings. Many of the lines of his 
" Problem " have passed into current speech. 

A whole treatise on the subject of lost opportunity 
is condensed in his eleven-line poem, "Days," just as 
a whole sermon can be extracted from the eight-line 
poem on "Forbearance." 

Perhaps the most salient, because the most true, 
aspersions which Matthew Arnold, in his singularly 
inappreciative address on Emerson, casts upon Emer- 
son's verse, are those having reference to the superfi- 
cial quality of form. Emerson's peculiarities are 
obvious. The grammatical constructions in his verse 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 315 

are, it must be admitted, sometimes awkward; the 
subjects and objects of his verbs often hopelessly jum- 
bled; and his pronouns are sometimes disagreeably 
placed in reference to antecedents. These character- 
istics, or if you will, mannerisms, are, however, so 
distinctly his own, that his admirers willingly accept . 
them, with halting lines and faulty rhymes, rather than 
blur or blot a single one of his characteristic utterances. 
The inner sense is gladly receptive to profound truths, 
even though the manner of expression sometimes jars 
on the sensitive ear. 

Emerson carried his idealism into politics as well as 
morals. His ideal republic, hinted at in his writings, 
and foreshadowed in his conversation at Stonehenge, as 
related in "English Traits," is but the American 
principle carried to its logical fulfilment. That 
America should be something more than, and some- 
thing different from the Old World, that its ultimate 
civilization should be something more than a trans- 
planted product, was no mere dream with him. Above 
all the discordant, turbulent, materialistic elements of 
our life, he could still discern the true spirit of Amer- 
ica, evolving itself, destined, in spite of all, to fulfil 
its high mission. Unlike many reformers, Emerson 
never outgrew the buoyant hope of his youth. The 
serene optimism of his early manhood was the firm 
conviction of his old age. True to the spirit of the 
exalted strain which may be regarded as the termination 
of his poetic career, he "obeyed at eve the voice 
obeyed at prime," as he calmly awaited the final mes- 
sage to launch upon that unknown sea "whose every 
wave is charmed." 

Upon his receipt of the first number of "The Dial," 
Thomas Carlyle wrote : " It is an utterance of what is 



3i6 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

purest, youngest in your land; pure, ethereal as the 
voices of the Morning! And yet, for me it is too 
ethereal, speculative, theoretic; all theory becomes 
more confessedly inadequate, untrue, unsatisfactory, 
almost a kind of mockery to me ! I will have all things 
condense themselves, take shape and body, if they are 
to have my sympathy." A year later his judgment 
had evidently not been changed, for he exclaims : 
" ' The Dial ' is all spirit-like, aeriform, aurora-borealis- 
like. Will no Angel body himself out of that; no 
stalwart Yankee man, with color in the cheeks of him, 
and a coat on his back. "^ It is useless to deny the 
justice of these comments. Nebulous as were the 
utterances of many of these idealists, the animating 
motive was for good. Without form, and frequently 
void, as these chaotic elements often were, they were 
still destined to crystallize into a certain order and con- 
sistency that marked them as among the first manifes- 
tations of distinctively American song. They were the 
product of our own land and century, and embodied 
the higher protests against certain forces that were 
tending to degrade and emasculate true American 
thought. 

In numbers the idealists form an important group. 
Jones Very (i8 13-1880), referred to more at length in 
a previous chapter, early illustrated the connection 
between mysticism and Christianity. He rendered 
implicit obedience to the promptings of the Spirit, 
concerning himself but little with results. He cast 
the glamour of his devout idealism over the most pro- 
saic objects, from the acorn and the barberry bush to 
the railway, the telegraph, and the telephone. Emer- 
son early discovered his talents and took an active 

1 Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence, I., 330 and 383. 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 317 

interest in the publication of his first volume. His 
collection of sonnets has been pronounced the best 
produced in America, and Charles Eliot Norton 
refers to him as an exquisite spirit, some of whose 
poems "are as if written by a George Herbert, who had 
studied Shakespeare, read Wordsworth, and lived in 
America." Yet the monotonous tone that from first to 
last pervades these rhythmic chants sadly detracts 
from their undoubted beauty. The same may be said 
of the little collection of " Sonnets and Canzonets " of 
A. Bronson Alcott (i 799-1 888). As an educator and 
thinker, and as the founder of the Concord School of 
Philosophy, Alcott is deserving of profound respect 
and even admiration. He stood closest to Emerson, 
and, like Emerson, was at first thoroughly misunder- 
stood. Lacking Emerson's shrewd common-sense, 
Alcott' s idealism sometimes led him into vagaries, 
injurious chiefly to himself. His prose far outranks 
his verse, both in bulk and quality, placing him in the 
foremost ranks of our speculative writers. A Penn- 
sylvanian by birth, a New Englander by residence, and 
Platonist by nature, philanthropist, theologian, and ex- 
perimenter, his sayings, "Orphic," and otherwise, have 
a distinct individuality. 

Of all Emerson's followers, probably the most con- 
spicuous was Henry D. Thoreau (1817-1862). His 
few published poems are mere hints of what might have 
been expected. The "Poet Naturalist" had a superb 
disdain of popular success. With devout reverence he 
prayed, — 

" Great God ! I ask Thee for no meaner pelf, 
Than that I may not disappoint myself." 

Though in some respects his life was not an unlim- 
ited success, a disappointment it certainly was not 



3i8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

either to his own high ideals or to the reasonable 
expectations of his friends. His poetic spirit finds 
its best expression in his prose. 

It is not unlikely that Margaret Fuller, afterwards 
Countess d'Ossoli, will live longer in such memorials 
as have been written of her by Emerson, Higginson, 
and Mrs. Howe, than in her own writings. Certain it 
is that her prose is now but little readj and her verse 
still less. Yet in her day she accomplished much, and 
next to Emerson and Alcott, may be ranked with 
George Ripley among the leaders of the "Transcen- 
dental " movement. 

Margaret Fuller was born at Cambridgeport, Massa- 
chusetts, May 23, 1 8 10, of Puritan ancestry, and was forty 
years old at the time of her death. Her childhood 
could hardly have been a cheerful one. In July, 1825, 
she wrote : " I rise a little before five, walk an hour, and 
then practise on the piano till seven, when we break- 
fast. Next I read French, Sismondi's ' Literature of 
the South of Europe, ' till eight, then two or three lec- 
tures in Brown's Philosophy. About half-past nine I 
go to Mr. Perkins' school and study Greek till twelve, 
when, the school being dismissed, I recite, go home, 
and practise again till dinner, at two. Sometimes, if 
the conversation is very agreeable, I lounge for half an 
hour over the dessert, though rarely so lavish of time. 
Then when I can, I read two hours in Italian, but I am 
often interrupted. At six I walk or take a drive. 
Before going to bed, I play or sing for half an hour, 
and about eleven retire to write a little while in my 
journal, — exercises on what I have read, or a series of 
characteristics which I am filling up according to 
advice." 

This seems like a formidable programme for a young 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 319 

girl barely turned fifteen. The next year she was 
studying, "with great delight," Madame de Stael, 
Epictelus, Milton, Racine, and Castilian ballads; and 
in 1827 was devoting critical attention to the older 
Italian poets. Subsequently she familiarized herself 
with the German poets and philosophers, and studied 
art. The culture thus acquired, so far from being 
superficial, as might be inferred from its variety, was 
profound and lasting. Its effect upon an original mind 
like Margaret's was stimulating. She scorned the dull 
level of the commonplace and aspired only to the 
highest ideals. " Yes, O Goethe ! " she somewhere 
writes, "but the ideal is truer than the actual. This 
changes and that changes not." She honestly strov^ to 
live up to her own ideals, whether championing intel- 
lectual freedom in America or political freedom in 
Italy. As a pioneer in the cause of woman's advance- 
ment, in her labors as reformer, critic, teacher, con- 
versationalist, and correspondent, in her experiences 
in Italy, and her services in the cause of the Italian 
patriots, in her calmness in the closing hours of the 
ill-starred homeward voyage, culminating in shipwreck 
off Fire Island, and the drowning of herself, husband, 
and child, she displayed the tenderness of a woman 
united with the wisdom of a remarkable genius. Her 
watchword through life was "Truth," — truth and loy- 
alty to conscience, to reason, and to nature, and truth 
and sincerity in literature, art, and every conduct of 
life. It was her devotion to truth, as the truth appeared 
to her, that led her sometimes to write and say disa- 
greeable things. Though her metrical efforts are 
few, it is because of the influence that she exercised 
and the principles that she exemplified, that she is 
entitled to an honorable mention in the history of 



320 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

American song. It is in such of her poems as " Life a 
Temple," "Encouragement," and "Sub Rosa Crux" 
that her characteristics best appear. 

This group of poets of idealism might be extended to 
include such earnest singers as D. A. Wasson (1823- 
1887), Charles T. Brooks (1813-1883), J. S. Dwight, 
better known as a musician, whose stanzas entitled 
" Rest " breathe the genuine spirit, the Sturgis sisters, 
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, next to Margaret Fuller, per- 
haps the most intellectual woman America has produced, 
and later, F. B. Sanborn and Thomas W. Higginson, 
whose poetic gifts have been too much slighted for the 
more unrestricted medium of their attractive prose. 
There are two, however, especially noteworthy. 

Thoreau's friend and biographer, William Ellery 
Channing, son of Walter Channing, and nephew of the 
great divine from whom he was named, is frequently 
referred to as a poet for poets. Apparently he has not 
always been successful with even this limited audience, 
if Poe's malignant diatribe is entitled to any weight. 
The slowness of popular recognition has not deterred 
Mr. Channing from publishing several volumes of 
verse, mostly in a meditative strain. He is a disciple 
of Emerson, to whom he owes much. His poetry 
shows scholarship, tenderness of feeling, love of nature, 
and a certain visionary idealism. 

Christopher Pearce Cranch was one of the most regu- 
lar contributors to "The Dial," and wrote probably the 
best American poem on the death of Margaret Fuller. 
His writings are marked by a profound ethical insight, 
bold original thought, deep poetic fancy, and, what is 
too rare in poets of this class, a clear, lucid style and 
correct, musical rhythm. From his artistic and musi- 
cal accomplishments, his verse seems to have acquired 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 321 

both picturesqueness and melody. His long poem, 
"Satan," is thoroughly characteristic. Published 
thirty -years after the collapse of "The Dial," the 
poem, or "Libretto," as its author terms it, is signifi- 
cant as embodying the tenets of the " liberal " faith 
extended far beyond the limits of the Concord circle. 
The underlying thought is not new, but the exposition 
of an ethical principle in operatic form is a bold 
conception. 

One of Mr. Cranch's most obvious traits is his all- 
abounding charity. The same geniality of tempera- 
ment which leads him to reject the personality of the 
devil, leads him to look for excellence in what is some- 
times worse than evil itself, — an insipid mediocrity. 
This is clearly illustrated in his pleasing poem, "The 
American Pantheon." He shows more versatility than 
any of his companion idealists. The miscellaneous 
collection in "The Bird and the Bell" exhibits his 
abilities as a gentle humorist as well as poetical phi- 
losopher. His rendering of Virgil's ".^neid," while 
not up to the standard of translations set by Bryant, 
Longfellow, Taylor, Parsons, or Brooks, evinces true 
and careful scholarship, and fairly reflects the poetic 
spirit of the original. 

" Transcendentalism " bore to intellectual life a rela- 
tion similar to that borne by abolitionism to the politi- 
cal. They both appealed to the conscience; the one 
against spiritual, the other against physical servitude. 
Each produced its heroes, each its fanatics. Each 
aimed at a reform, deep, lasting, and radical. Freedom 
and abstract justice, the dignity of man, the elevation 
of the race, emancipation from established wrongs, 
were the common aims. The era of transcendentalism 
has passed away. Has literature been the gainer by 



322 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

this modern idealism? The increasing influence of 
Emerson is the best answer. The puny barriers of 
prejudice and intolerance have long since crumbled 
away before the serene wisdom of his eloquence. 
Critics now realize that in attacking "Emersonism," 
they are attacking vital points in Christianity. Ortho- 
dox and heterodox alike find delight in his works. 
Matthew Arnold, so chary in his praise of the Concord 
poet, was still of the opinion that "Emerson's Essays 
are the most important work done in prose " in our 
language during the present century. This judgment 
is apparently based on Emerson's conviction that in 
the life of the spirit is happiness, and by the hope that 
"this life of the spirit will come more and more to be 
sanely understood, and to prevail and to work for hap- 
piness." It is strange that the English critic could 
not find the same qualities in Emerson's poetry as in 
his prose. "The life of the spirit" is the groundwork 
of Emerson's verse, as it was the soul of the whole so- 
called "Transcendental school." It is true, the poetry 
of Emerson was to that of the minor singers of his class 
as the sunlight is to moonlight. But moonlight has 
its uses. 

Whatever may be said in condemnation of " Transcen- 
dentalism," it still stood as a most active force in 
American letters. It originated the nearest approach 
to what, for want of a better name, may be vaguely 
termed "the American school." It produced and stim- 
ulated more profound, radical, and original thought 
than any other branch of our literature. Though we no 
longer hear of it as a living factor, its exponents under 
different names are scattered throughout the land, and 
its influence has reached beyond the sea. Emerson 
probably has not so many readers in Europe as either 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 323 

Longfellow or Poe, but what is more to the purpose, 
has his students, followers, and disciples. He is the 
recognized American thinker, whose thoughts as readily 
adapt themselves to verse as to prose. It is no small 
thing that in an age devoted to material and commer- 
cial pursuits, the warning voices of these idealists 
should be raised with sufficient clearness to compel 
attention and even admiration. It proves, if nothing 
else, that the repulsive rigidity of early American 
Puritanism could develop into forms of rare beauty and 
excellence. 

In 1855 "The Dial" and Brook Farm were mere 
memories, when another revolt against the established 
was to be recorded. This time it was the spirit of 
realism, a counterpoise rather than a reaction against 
that of New England idealism. Attempts to start an 
obviously, designedly, and obtrusively national lit- 
erature had become stale and hackneyed years be- 
fore, even in the dawn of what we to-day recognize as 
American letters. All these mechanical efforts have 
been deservedly forgotten. In 1855, among American 
readers. Homer and Virgil had not been displaced by 
Dwight and Barlow. Paulding and Neal remained 
unread. Experience had taught us that literature to 
be genuine must be spontaneous, a natural growth, 
and not an artificial mechanism. With the history 
of these abortive attempts fresh in our minds, how 
jejune and conventional, from at least one point of 
view, was Mr. Whitman's contention for originality 
when, discussing his own book, he wrote: "What 
play of Shakspere represented in America is not an 
insult to America, to the marrow in its bones? . . . 
Sure as the heavens envelop the earth, if the Ameri- 
cans want a race of bards worthy of 1855, and of the 



324 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

stern reality of this republic, they must cast around 
for men essentially different from the old poets, and 
from the modern successions of jinglers, and snivel- 
lers, and fops." As a remedy he offered his "Leaves 
of Grass," which, to use his own words, was "to prove 
either the most lamentable of failures or the most 
glorious of triumphs in the known history of litera- 
ture." Americans, however, continue to swallow, with 
equanimity, the " insults " of Shakspere, and after the 
lapse of forty years have not yet repudiated the works 
of Poe, Emerson, Longfellow, and other "jinglers, 
snivellers, and fops " that so exasperated the bard of 
Paumanok. 

It may as well be conceded at once that many of the 
alleged characteristics of Whitman had already become 
familiar even to superficial students of literature. His 
most ardent panegyrists will not claim that his substi- 
tution of rhythm for meter is an innovation. Nor is 
there anything especially commendable in the coinage 
of words and phrases that serve no purpose not filled 
by others already in use. His long and verbose cata- 
loguings, aside from Homeric precedent, were antici- 
pated in the very beginning of American civilization. 
Morrell's "Nova Anglia" (1624) and Wood's "New 
England Prospect" (1634) were little more than a 
metrical classification of the fauna and flora of the new 
colony. 

The superficial faults of Whitman are too obtrusive 
to be ignored in a discussion of his works. It is but 
just to apply to a consideration of himself the same 
absolute candor that he manifests in his own treatment 
of matters. He chose to pose as a reactionist, while 
stigmatizing the works of his contemporaries in England 
and America. He proposed to himself a set theory, 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 325 

and throughout all his verse is the conscious intention 
to exemplify such a theory. Scorning the atmosphere 
of scholasticism and even good breeding, he went to 
the other extreme of idealizing " powerful uneducated 
persons." The mincing airs of society exasperated him 
and drove him to the more congenial surroundings of 
the slums and docks, oblivious of the fact that the jocu- 
larities and by-words of such resorts are as stale and 
trite, and therefore in a certain sense as conventional 
as the wearisome platitudes of the respectably dull. 
As music and melody were inherent in his soul, he 
must have realized that his frequently affected un- 
couthness was the height of artificialism. That he 
exaggerated almost to a travesty his own theories is 
indicated by his subsequent pruning of much that was 
objectionable in the early editions. He has, however, 
left us his finally revised volume of poetry, as com- 
mended to his maturest judgment, and upon this, with 
all its vulgarities and vulgarisms, its affectations and 
artificialities, his fame as a poet must rest. If he is 
indeed the typical bard of "These States," there would, 
at first thought, seem to be some truth in the cynic's 
sneer that the mission of America was " to vulgarize 
mankind." 

To say that poetry is the highest of all arts is to state 
a truism. Poetry without art of some kind is a paradox. 
Without attempting to open a subject now become 
threadbare, it is perhaps sufficient for our purpose to 
base our objections to many of the most fiercely con- 
demned passages in " Leaves of Grass," on purely 
artistic rather than moral grounds. A very small por- 
tion of this volume is taken up with a group of poems 
entitled " Children of Adam," It is these that have 
been so unduly extolled by the poet's admirers, and 



326 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

have attracted so much attention from the prurient and 
impure. If the underlying thought, the animating pur- 
pose of this Httle group is obscene, then humanity itself 
is but the offspring and personification of lust. The 
meaning of such a poem, like that of a legal instrument, 
must be gathered from the intention as expressed in 
the writing itself taken as a whole. No pure and sane 
mind, after carefully studying the context, can reason- 
ably object to the alleged immorality of these few pieces. 
On artistic and literary grounds, however, they are de- 
cidedly offensive, and Emerson was abundantly justified 
in importuning their author to expunge them. They 
are as devoid of imaginative beauty and otherwise as 
unpoetic as a medical treatise. It must also be borne 
in mind that while Mr. Whitman is hailed as especially 
the poet of democracy, his poems have utterly failed 
to arouse a sympathetic response in the hearts of the 
democratic masses. His most appreciative admirers at 
home and abroad are from the very class for whom he 
expresses such disdain. His devotees come from the 
aristocracy of the intellectual, not from the ranks of 
what he extols as the " divine average." If he is the 
poet of democracy, he is in no sense a poet of the 
people. Nor is there any reason why we should over- 
look his frequently exasperating prolixity, redundancy, 
vagueness, and obscurity, his confused thoughts con- 
fusedly expressed, his needlessly imperfect grammar, 
his twaddling repetitions of such expressions as " I 
swear," and " I guess," and, as entirely distinct from 
his aggressive egotism, the inordinate vanity that led 
him to write " puffing " notices of his own works. 
Having thus performed the ungracious but necessary 
task of dilating upon the weaknesses of a truly great- 
hearted man, there remains the more congenial duty of 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 337 

recognizing the undoubted merits of one of the potent 
factors in the Hterary history of his age. At the outset, 
however, we must be permitted to record our dissent 
from the poet's already quoted estimate of his own 
work as " either the most lamentable of failures or the 
most glorious of triumphs in the known history of 
literature." It was neither. Yet no work of mere 
mediocrity could elicit such encomiums from eminent 
thinkers in Europe and America. In our own country, 
thinkers as dissentient as Emerson and Joel Chandler 
Harris, Thoreau and Joaquin Miller, Stedman and 
Ingersoll, W. S. Kennedy and W. D. O'Connor, 
Burroughs and Garland, Bucke and Lanier, besides 
others equally noted, have acknowledged his greatness. 
In England, to mention but a few, Tennyson, Ruskin, 
W. M. Rossetti, Sir Edwin Arnold, Robert Buchanan, 
Symonds, and William Clarke have paid the tributes 
of unstinted admiration. His praises have been sounded 
in the French, German, and Danish tongues, and one of 
his most discriminating admirers has called attention 
to the fact that Whitman's poetry was to be discusssd 
before a literary society at Padua.^ 

In earliest manhood, probably about 1840, the poet 
had begun evolving in his mind the elements of " Leaves 
of Grass." The last complete edition was published in 
his seventy-third year (i 891-1892). This volume m.ay, 
therefore, be said to represent half a century of literary 
life. Here his scattered poems, systematically collated, 
present a unity of purpose that at once explains and 
exalts the original design. The twelve poems of the 
first edition have increased to nearly four hundred. 
No other work in American literature has had such a 

1 J. Addington Symonds, " Walt Whitman : A Study," XXXV., 
London, 1893. 



328 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

history. With apparently serene indifference alike to 
the abuse and misconstruction of enemies, the ridicule 
of witlings, the persecution by bigots, and the indiscrim- 
inate eulogy by friends, " brave, hopeful Walt " pursued 
his way, thinking, observing, and writing, never flinching 
from the toilsome path he had marked out, following 
the inner light as he was given to see it, considering 
nothing common or unclean that God had created, and 
putting to a practical test the examples and precepts 
inculcated by the founder of Christianity himself. To 
his simple loving soul, a leaf of grass was as strangely 
beautiful as " the journey-work of the stars." To the 
generation that had not entirely forgotten the period of 
" Elegant Extracts," of sentimental annuals like " Amar- 
anthine Leaves," " Floral Tributes," " Heart Blossoms," 
et id omne genus, one would suppose that this breezy 
book, with its title, " Leaves of Grass," would be refresh- 
ing and purifying. Not so. The first edition had no 
sale. Some copies were sent to the press for criticism, 
but received only abuse and ridicule even more scurri- 
lous than that visited upon Emerson's first volume of 
verse. Other copies were as an act of courtesy sent to 
" prominent literary men." A number of these presenta- 
tion copies were returned, " in some cases accompanied 
by insulting notes." The second and enlarged edition 
(1856) found few purchasers and still fewer intelligent 
readers. The author was experiencing what his brother 
poet had pronounced one of the attributes of greatness. 
He was being misunderstood. The advisability of crim- 
inal prosecution was seriously discussed, but the matter 
was dropped when it was suggested that the poet's 
personal popularity would prevent a conviction. The 
publishers, however, were frightened into withdrawing 
the book from sale. 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 329 

The third edition (i860) presented the author's 
position in more coherent form, and found here and 
there a_ purchaser, and even admirer. Shortly afterward 
the pubHshers failed, and the book passed out of public 
notice. But the " Leaves " could not be left unmolested. 
The author was the first poet in the United States to 
suffer official persecution for his writings. His earnest 
efforts in behalf of literary reform, his sacrificing labors 
in personally administering to the wants of upward of 
a hundred thousand of his nation's sick and wounded 
defenders, counted for nothing with his official chief. 
When it was understood that Whitman was the author 
of " Leaves of Grass," he was, in spite of past services 
and present poverty, summarily dismissed from his 
modest clerkship in the Interior Department at Wash- 
ington. This act of intolerance and injustice (1865) was 
afterward in a measure atoned for by his appointment 
to a position in the Department of Justice, which he was 
obliged to give up on account of increasing ill health. 

Trouble was still ahead for "Leaves of Grass" and 
its author. He had lost the position in the Attorney- 
General's Department, that assured him a small but 
steady income, was broken in health and miserably 
poor, his book his only financial resource. " And now," 
says his biographer, " two men in succession, in New 
York, in whose hands the sale of the book on commis- 
sion had been placed, took advantage of his helplessness 
to embezzle the amounts due (they calculated that death 
would soon settle the score and rule it out)." Later 
(1881) the seventh edition had been printed in a hand- 
some volume by a distinguished Boston publishing- 
house. The imprint of this firm was in itself a passport 
to the society of the elect. It was a practical recognition 
from a source that must have been most gratifying to 



330 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the poet and his friends. But certain individuals like 
those unhealthful personages who are thrown into spiri- 
tual hysterics by a contemplation of the " nude in art " 
— weaklings that have not sufficient confidence in their 
own moral purity to gaze upon a Greek statue — fancied 
that the volume was dangerous to public morality. The 
machinery of the criminal courts was invoked, and the 
publishers notified that they would be prosecuted if they 
continued to offer the book for sale. Governed by 
prudential business motives, the publishers yielded to 
the threat, and " Leaves of Grass " was withdrawn from 
the market. For a time the immaculate pouches of the 
United States mails were interdicted from carrying 
poems written by the author of " President Lincoln's 
Burial Hymn." In strong contrast with the narrowness 
exhibited by officials at Washington and Boston, stand 
out the earnest tributes of pure and religious men and 
women, and the encomiums of leaders of intellectual 
progress in Europe and America. In the meantime, 
" Leaves of Grass " continued to grow slowly but stead- 
ily in the minds of those whose judgment was of im- 
portance. The suppressed Boston edition was purchased 
and issued by a Philadelphia house, whose successors 
are the authorized publishers of Whitman's writings. 

" Leaves of Grass," to be properly understood, must 
be considered in its entirety. It is the " poem of Walt 
Whitman ; " Walt Whitman considered as a type of 
modern manhood, eating, drinking, loving, hating, work- 
ing, dreaming, rejoicing, sorrowing, — coarse, but tender- 
hearted ; rough, but simple-minded ; devoutly sceptical; 
agnostically religious. Not only does he look into his 
own heart and write, but his work throbs with the 
very heart-beats of his singularly organized humanity. 
Neither accepting nor rejecting the past, he loves the 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 331 

present and venerates the future. The past is to be 
regarded simply in its relation to the present and the 
future^ 

Upon the poets to come, the orators, singers, and 
musicians of the future, he depends for justification. 
Of this " new brood, native, athletic, continental," he 
is himself the forerunner, the indicator. 

And in what lies the greatness of these songs of the 
New World? The author's ignoring of recognized 
models, so far from being a novelty, had been antici- 
pated with varying degrees of failure from the beginning 
of the republic. The " distinctive nationalism " of this 
poet has been so frequently exploited, that critics have 
come to take it for granted. Yet, in some superficial 
respects, he is the least national of our poets. His 
defiance of public opinion, his exaltation of the indi- 
vidual, his mysticism, his contempt of mock modesty, 
his freedom from conventionalism, his scorn of the 
practical affairs of life, are certainly not national traits 
of the " divine average " that we are accustomed to 
meet with in " These States." He is hailed as the 
special bard of American democracy, and affects to 
transfer to his pages all phases of our democratic life — 
to present Americanism as it is. In spite of his boasted 
realism, some of the most conspicuous features of our 
politics are ignored. Nor is there any reason to over- 
look the fact that, long before the first appearance of 
the " Leaves," Emerson, Whittier, and Lowell had sung 
of ideal democracy in a manner that met with popular 
sympathy. Whitman's apostrophe to democracy, 

" Sail, sail thy best, ship of Democracy ! " 

has been repeatedly quoted by his admirers as a new 
and striking conception, though the same thought had 



332 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

been fully as well expressed by Longfellow twenty-three 
years earlier, in lines that have long since become hack- 
neyed by frequent declamation. But according to the 
Whitmanian theory, " Longfellow yields only centos 
and distillations." Whitman's exaltation of self is ex- 
tolled as the " key-note of democracy," as putting the 
matter in a new light. There is no evidence that Poe's 
assertion, " My whole nature utterly revolts at the idea 
that there is any being in the universe superior to my- 
self y " was familiar to Whitman. 

But Whitman's disciples seem to regard his attitude 
towards self as a revelation never vouchsafed to poet 
before. 

Passages in " Leaves of Grass " may be paralleled in 
Emerson's earlier writings, but Mr. Whitman's followers 
resent with indignation the suggestion of any indebted- 
ness on their poet's part. 

Not for a moment is it to be understood that 
Whitman is to be charged with imitation or even 
" unconscious cerebration," It is almost inevitable that 
similar thoughts of different thinkers should be ex- 
pressed in similar language. But it is only fair to 
suggest that, besides those already referred to, many 
sentiments that are constantly held up to our admira- 
tion as purely and distinctively Whitman's had already 
found utterance among even the depreciated poets of 
our own land. Mr. Whitman himself, in his old age, 
displayed toward his brother singers a spirit of generous 
appreciation which it would be well for some of his 
disciples to emulate. He greeted Whittier as a poet, 
and conceded the merits of Bryant and Emerson. His 
short eulogy upon Longfellow was one of the best called 
forth by the elder poet's death. It is the constant and 
conscious straining after " nationalism " that militates 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 333 

against the spontaneity of much of Whitman's work. 
His extensive cataloguing of inventions, of occupations, 
of geographical and political divisions, may serve a 
purpose in creating a vague sense of vastness, of mul- 
titudes, and of industrial prosperity. But not by such 
means is the spirit of Americanism to be caught and 
delineated. The most stimulating portions of Whit- 
man's poems, those glowing with the light and warmth 
of true inspiration, are precisely those in which he 
forgets his self-imposed mission. It is when he gives 
free rein to his fancy and imagination that he attains to 
the great heights of song, above and independent of 
time and place. Then it is that his individuality, his 
" nationalism," if you will, is most true, because most 
spontaneous and most inartificial. His melodious chant, 
"The Mystic Trumpeter," for instance, is in some res- 
pects one of the greatest poems written in America. 
No one, after reading it, can rightfully accuse Whitman 
of always ignoring literary art. It is more of a rhapsody 
than a poem, beginning with a few simple notes, grad- 
ually rising to a higher key as the poet yields himself 
more and more to the divinely mysterious influence. 

It is the spirit of the poet himself that responds to 
the breath of the divine trumpeter and vibrates with 
the sad notes of the feudal past, of love, and of war, of 
enslaved, oppressed humanity, "the wrongs of ages, 
baffled feuds and hatreds," and of man's struggle for 
redemption. In a powerful antistrophe the notes of 
sadness are suddenly turned to those of triumph as they 
attain a yet higher strain and are brought to a close in 
"a glad, exulting, culminating song." 

To paraphrase the poet's own language, these poems 
are but leaves and roots, scents from the wild woods, 
and pond-side, "breezes of land and love set from living 



334 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

shores" to those on "the living sea," frost-mellowed 
berries, early spring twigs and yet unfolded buds. To 
him who brings the warm sunshine of a sympathetic 
spirit they will open and bring form, color, and per- 
fume, and become flowers, fruits, and trees. "The 
Song of the Broad-ax," amid much that is superfluous, 
fairly well represents the genius of our poet at its 
prime. Strong, elemental, grand is the sweep of this 
chant, imaginative, retrospective and prophetic, fitly 
according with the suggestions of an implement that 
has been so important a factor in the history of progress. 
The assonance of the opening lines, by the way, shows 
how natural to our poet are the ordinary ornaments of 
English verse, and may serve as a hint of the struggle 
that it cost him to emancipate himself from the fetters 
of conventional metre. 

As if ashamed of being betrayed into anything like 
metrical formalism in his opening, the author gives us 
in the body of the piece some of probably the most 
extraordinary lines that ever disfigured a serious " song. " 
The poet considered them essential to his purpose, 
however, and without such lines it would not be the 
representative song that it is. It is in the elemental 
grandeur of such poems as "Song of the Broad-ax," 
"Proud Music of the Storm," "Song of the Redwood 
Tree," " By Blue Ontario's Shore," " Song of the Open 
Road," and " Salut au Monde," that the poet's strength 
is shown. His simple graphic language is drawn from 
nature herself, from the sun, the air, the winds, and 
storms, the oceans and the prairies. Life, death, and 
man are his themes. Nature, in all her rugged, un- 
couth charms is his mistress, and he can see nothing 
in nature that is not pure, elevated, and devoid of evil. 

Whitman's poetry of nature is distinct from that of 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 335 

any other writer. It is true that he had read Words- 
worth to advantage, but the nature spirit that whispers 
through the " Leaves of Grass " is thoroughly genuine. 
In reading Whitman we do not feel that we are reading 
his impressions of nature, so much as the very words of 
nature herself. In a poem written in his old age he 
refers to the great bards and their achievements, stately 
and beautiful. " These ! " he exclaims, — 

" These, O sea, all these I'd gladly barter, 
Would you the undulation of one wave, its trick 

to me transfer. 
Or breathe one breath of yours upon my verse. 
And leave its odor there." 

Our poet has never been accused of false modesty in 
judging his own work, but in this instance he has, at 
least by implication, underestimated himself. As far 
as possible he has transferred to his pages not only the 
breath and odor of the sea, but the sighing of the 
breeze, the shadows of the forest, the impressiveness of 
the hills, the vastness of the rolling prairies, "the 
proud music of the storm," the glow of the "sun at 
noon refulgent," and the cooling airs of "tender and 
growing night." But under all the outward forms and 
signs of nature is the deeper spiritual meaning which 
the poet alone can interpret. In the wonderful dirge 
beginning, "Out of the cradle endlessly rocking," the 
poet beautifully illustrates this power. 

The closing passages naturally suggest Poe. In fact, 
a critical essay might be written on the points of like- 
ness and difference between the two poets, the one of 
gloom, the other of joy, as exemplified in "The 
Raven," and this lyric of the mocking-bird. Foe's 
messenger was a " bird or devil," bringing its tidings 
of utter despair. Whitman's was a "bird or demon," 



336 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

and his message of death, as finally interpreted by the 
sea, inspires the listener with the courage and comfort 
of hope. 

Death has been a favorite topic among American 
versifiers ever since the days of the early Puritans, 
though nothing worthy of note was produced on the 
subject until the appearance of "Thanatopsis." But it 
was reserved for Whitman to deal with it in a way that 
was at once genuine and unconventional. Roaming in 
thought over the universe, as he says, he saw the " little 
that is good hastening toward Immortality," and the 
vast all that is called evil "hastening to merge itself 
and become lost and dead." He believed that every- 
thing has its appointed purpose, that each individual 
is an indispensable part of the universe. Excepting 
that in a certain sense evil "merges itself and becomes 
lost," there is no such thing as annihilation. In his 
cosmic economy there is a constant, continual pro- 
gression; "there is no stoppage and can be no 
stoppage." 

Though the "quicksand years" may whirl him he 
knows not whither, and all the schemes of life may fail, 
the self, the soul, the final substance must remain. 
Death, "the purport of all life," forms no exception to 
the rule that all things have been duly provided for. 
"I do not," he says, "think Life provides for all and 
for Time and Space, but I believe Heavenly Death 
provides for all." 

With the mystery of God he dares not dally. Nor is 
he "curious about God," in whom he believes more 
than does "any priest." Everywhere and in all objects 
he sees something of God. 

Whitman's religious faith and love were as instinc- 
tive in him as filial affection. " No man has ever yet 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 337 

been half devout enough," he says; "none has yet 
adored or worshipped half enough." 

As everything is of God, what we call evil, as one of 
the facts of existence, is as worthy of consideration as 
what we call good. This is a familiar doctrine, even 
in American literature. 

Though he nowhere seeks to penetrate the impene- 
trable, Whitman places no limitations upon the actions 
of the human soul. He sings in the " Song of Myself " 
(1855): 

" I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and an 

incloser of things to be, 
My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs ; 
On every step bunches of ages, and larger 

bunches between the steps ; 
All below duly travel'd and still I mount and 

mount. 
Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me ; 
Afar down I see the huge first Nothing — I know 

I was even there ; 
I waited unseen and always, and slept through 

the lethargic mist, 
And took my time, and took no hurt from the 

fetid carbon." 

Whitman was not the first to interpret poetically the 
teachings of modern science, but in the lines that 
follow the last quotation is the boldest recognition to 
be found in contemporary verse of the doctrine of evo- 
lution. Great scientific achievements, as represented 
at a New York exposition, or as typified in the opening 
of a new passage to India, appeal vividly to his imagi- 
nation. The two poems suggested by those events are 
characteristic, — the one as the chant of triumphant 
democracy, the other as the hymnal of humanity at 
large. As Whitman is greater as a cosmic than as a 

22 



338 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

national poet, "Passage to India" is a nobler poem 
than his " Song of the Exposition." 

As this new passage to India may be regarded as the 
link between primitive and modern civilizations, by a 
transition truly Whitmanian it is made to symbolize 
the connection between the unknown and the known. 

As there are no material obstacles that cannot be 
overcome by modern science, so there is no spiritual 
barrier before which the soul should shrink in fear or 
doubt. 

To the question as to what constitutes the greatness 
of Whitman's poetry, it is impossible to give a cate- 
gorical answer. Different readers receive quite contra- 
dictory impressions. To my own mind the poet's chief 
characteristic is his elemental grandeur, as already 
noted. Subordinate to this may be mentioned his 
robust imagination, his love of nature, his humanity, 
his spirituality, his profound optimism, his virile 
strength, his courage, faith, and hope. He seems a 
universal rather than distinctively national poet. His 
greatest attributes have been shared by famous writers 
and thinkers before him, regardless of time or place. 
His attempts to transfer to his pages a reflection of his 
nation's material vastpess has, it seems to me, proved 
a failure. His artificial formlessness has been success- 
ful only as a protest against an equally unnatural for- 
malism, not as an example to be followed by others. 
His efforts to symbolize American life and aspirations 
resulted in depicting phases that for the most part were 
but fleeting and transitory. In one respect, however, 
his true Americanism happily manifests itself. This 
is his possession of the quality which he attributes to 
Lincoln as "a new virtue unknown to other lands, and 
hardly yet (1865) known here, but the foundation and 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 339 

tie of all, as the future will grandly develop, Unionism 
in its truest and amplest sense. " The bane of our best 
poetical literature, previous to Whitman, had been its 
localism. He broadly announces himself as the poet 
of the republic, and not of any section. The Missouri 
and the Columbia are to him as classic as the Hudson, 
the Merrimac, or the Charles. He recognizes the im- 
portance of all the agencies South and West, as well as 
North and East, that work to the upbuilding of the 
nation. As every individual is an indispensable factor 
in the universe, so in the State. The " love of com- 
rades," the practical recognition of the brotherhood of 
man, is the base of politics as well as of metaphysics. 
The "city invincible" is the "new City of Friends." 
A "continent indissoluble" will be formed, and the 
" most splendid race " arrive when companionship is 
planted "thick as trees along the rivers of America, 
and along the shores of the Great Lakes, and all over 
the prairies." Only by the maintenance of such a 
disposition among all may true democracy be perpetu- 
ated. It is his Lincolnian "unionism," rather than 
certain eccentricities so misunderstood by foreign 
critics, that impresses Whitman's nationalism. 

He was a strong, sane, healthful man, imaginative, 
original, self-absorbed, and convinced of the sacredness 
of his mission. Because he was imaginative, creative, 
aspiring, and felt within himself the harmonies of the 
universe, he was a poet. If he failed of unqualified 
success, he failed as the hero fails. " Battles are lost 
in the same spirit in which they are won " is one of his 
wisest sayings. But in his case the victories far out- 
number the defeats. 

With the period under review closes the golden era 
of American song. Though a very few of the singers 



340 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

mentioned are at the present writing still with us, their 
life-work may be considered as virtually complete. 
With the new era beginning after the passions of the 
war had subsided in a half-decade of peace, another 
literature arose, adapted to the changed conditions. 
How far these later writers may permanently affect 
American letters, it is too early to estimate. I have 
assumed the most productive period as extending from 
the appearance of Longfellow's first volume of original 
verse in 1839 ^o ^^^ date of the publication of Bret 
Harte's first book of poems in 1870. The writings of 
some of the poets who flourished during that time ante- 
date as others overlap this period, but the dates men- 
tioned are significant as marking the appearance of two 
essentially distinct and influential forces in our litera- 
ture. For after all the criticisms on Longfellow, he 
is still in general estimation the poet of America. As 
such, he is read and beloved at home, and honored and 
admired abroad. More original minds we have pro- 
duced, but none so universally popular with high and 
low. He appealed to the common humanity of all, 
not the discriminating appreciation of an intellectual 
few. One who can do this, and still carry out high 
ideals, has the elements of greatness, if not absolutely 
great himself. As the most widely read American 
poet throughout the world, the first to raise American 
verse to the dignity of a far-reaching international 
fame, he may justly be said to have opened up a new 
era in our literature. In 1870 a new kind of realism 
was presented in the poems of the California writer, 
which, whether for good or for ill, whether permanent 
or transient, had a marked effect. In these thirty-one 
years nearly all the American poetry of lasting value 
yet written was produced. Politically it was the epoch 



IDEALISM AND REALISM 341 

of conflict and of unrest. The clash of great ideas in 
matters of war and statesmanship, the ceaseless anti- 
slavery -agitations, the rise and fall of attempted social 
reforms, the beginnings of great material and mechan- 
ical changes, the opening up of the golden West, — all 
these were profound educators, stimulating men's intel- 
lectual activities to the utmost. Americanism had 
grown to mean something more than patriotic plati- 
tudes. How long those whom we now regard as our 
greatest poets will live in the memory of men it is idle 
to speculate. But the true historian, looking back 
upon those times, will discern in these singers fit types 
of the higher aspirations, hopes, and ideals of intel- 
lectual America. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE AFTERMATH 

1870-1897 

"T^HE time-worn reproaches against American litera- 
""^X ture are, first, that it does not fully reflect Amer- 
ican civilization, and second, that it is imitative and 
European, instead of being something unique and indig- 
enous. ) The latter charge, it may be assumed, will 
continue to be made as long as Americans persist in 
speaking the English language, in adhering to the 
elementary principles of English jurisprudence, and 
developing a civilization sprung for the most part from 
English sources. Thought must be more or less influ- 
enced by language, custom, and what we call civilized 
society; and literature, as the expression of thought, 
must necessarily partake of its environment. The for- 
mer charge, however, so frequently repeated, that our 
literature is not representatively American, is untrue. 
From the time of the first ballad by an American col- 
onist in 1610, declaring, "We hope to found a nation 
where none before hath stood," up to the present day, 
the civilization and social life are fairly well repre- 
sented in the literature, and especially the verse, of 
each period. If our literature was imitative, so was our 
civilization. fThe eras of settlement and colonization, 
of Indian wars, of the premonitory mutterings and 
trying ordeals of the Revolution, of the contest for 
nationality, of the development of the union, of the 



THE AFTERMATH 343 

long struggles for social and political reforms, of the 
Civil War and the principles involved, all may be 
traced -^in the verse of each successive generation, 
unreadable as much of that verse is to-day. Through 
all, it was characteristic of America as her career was 
steadily advancing! 

/Naturally enough, with a more firmly cemented 
union as a result of the subsidence of the war spirit, 
and in accord with the suggestions of the closing years 
of our first century as a nation, the sentiment of nation- 
alism broadened and developed, and American litera- 
ture ceased to be local. jThe new West, that had been 
forging ahead with its phenomenal growth, became 
an appreciative force in American letters. The South, 
awakening from its long literary lethargy, began to 
furnish, in a manner worthy of itself, its contributions 
of song and story as well as works of a more substan- 
tial character in the way of history and science. If in 
1870 our younger writers failed to show the promise of 
their forerunners at a corresponding age, in the former 
generation the broad, national diffusion of the literary 
spirit was, in some degree, a compensation. Though 
Whitman for fifteen years had been protesting against 
over-refinement in literature, few heeded him. Yet 
there was undoubtedly an instinctive revulsion among 
the reading public against the prevailing superficial 
elegance; and our poets of realism, headed by Bret 
Harte, struck the popular fancy at once. It was for- 
tunate for the Pacific coast that within its own terri- 
tory could be found a genius capable of interpreting its 
poetic spirit. No fresher or more tempting field 
could offer itself than California, the land of semi- 
tropical luxuriance, of pure and tender skies, and 
unequalled scenic grandeur, with its memories of three 



344 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

distinct civilizations within a generation; its dreamy 
traditions of a missionary past, so rudely terminated 
by the vanguard of a new order ; its period of excite- 
ment, uproar, and confusion, of heroes, criminals, and 
all the conflicting elements of a new State; and finally 
its era of commonplace existence following railway 
construction that put it into touch with the rest of the 
world, i 

Francis Bret H arte, whose genius was quick to detect 
the latent romance of California life, was born at 
Albany, New York, but had been a resident of his 
adopted State almost from boyhood. While still a 
young man, he had undergone the vicissitudes of those 
of his class on "the coast," having engaged in school- 
teaching, journalism, politics, and practical mining. 
In 1868 he was selected editor of "The Overland 
Monthly" at San Francisco. The second number of 
that magazine contained his first prose sketch, "The 
Luck of Roaring Camp." In this and others that 
followed were disclosed the genius of artist and poet, 
though eminently respectable people could not decide 
whether to be pleased or shocked at the writer's "un- 
necessary truthfulness." He had been writing verse 
for years without attracting special notice, but when in 
1870 he published in the September "Overland" his 
"Plain Language from Truthful James," his "Heathen 
Chinee" leaped into world-wide notoriety. 

The best of Harte's work as a poet belongs to a 
single decade, and he has wisely confined his labors 
of late years to prose. His strength is in his character 
sketches. As a novelist or poet of ordinary senti- 
ment, he is hardly above mediocrity. He is master of 
a terse, vigorous, dramatic style, adapted to the short 
story in prose, and to lyric and ballad verse. Outside 



THE AFTERMATH 345 

of his peculiar field he is conventional and imitative. 
Only his flashes of humor, as in "The Aged Stranger," 
relieve - his verse, not distinctively Western, of the 
charge of being commonplace. Because he was the 
first poet to reproduce in its true spirit a vanished life, 
his ballads of Spanish California, northern Mexico, 
and the California of early mining days, deserved 
the hearty welcome they received. Many of these, 
slight as they are, are flash-light photographs, in which 
passing and past phases of American life have been 
caught and preserved. They deserve the name of 
poetry because they are true to life and to nature, 
reflecting the passions and aspirations, however un- 
couthly, of the crude humanity that was the forerunner 
of more refined society. 

In his verse, as in his prose, our author has presented 
life as he found it. His aim, as he frankly admits, 
has been that of an artist, not that of a moralist. How- 
ever much we may quarrel with his art, we end by 
acknowledging its fascination. His poetic powers 
appear in his prose sketches to better advantage than 
in his verse. His worst prose, so far as form is con- 
cerned, is more graceful than his attempts to depict 
frontier characters in ancient classical metres. Nor is 
there any apparent reason for preserving in permanent 
form many of his frivolous and flippant efforts, of 
which "The Aspiring Miss DeLaine" may be taken 
as a type. In spite of his disclaimer as to being 
a moralist, moreover, Harte is not exempt from the 
American literary fault of didacticism which forms 
the burden, in a double sense, of otherwise unexcep- 
tionable works. 

Bret Harte's unconventionalism is one of his chief 
merits. The same class of critics who found fault 



346 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

with the metrical forms of "Evangeline" and "Hia- 
watha," with the dialect and homespun wit of "The 
Biglow Papers," with the idealism of Emerson, and 
the general attitude of Whitman, all because not based 
upon stereotyped models, objected to the realism and 
frankness of the California author. But the latter 
has outlived his critics and justified his own course. 
His success naturally inspired hordes of imitators. 
The former solitary pioneer, in his chosen province, 
is now hailed as a leader and originator. What was 
heresy in his initiative efforts has become a widely- 
accepted fashion, and the " Bret Harte school of poetry " 
is one of the features of the nineteenth-century 
literature. 

A strong voice was added when the singer of " Pike 
County Ballads " appeared. John Hay, of nearly the 
same age as Bret Harte, had the advantage of a very 
different training. Born at Salem, Indiana, in 1838, 
he graduated at Brown University, and was admitted 
to the Illinois bar. His collegiate and professional 
studies and subsequent experience as private Secretary 
to President Lincoln, officer in the army, secretary of 
the legation at Paris, charg^ d'affaires at Vienna, and 
secretary of legation at Madrid, would seem a strange 
sort of preparation for a literary career which in pop- 
ular judgment was to culminate in the creation of 
"Little Breeches" and "Jim Bludsoe." The era of 
dialect and frontier poetry had set in when Mr. Hay 
returned to America from Spain. It was perhaps as 
a relief to the poetical atmosphere of " Castilian Days " 
that he yielded to the current demand for something 
strong and unconventional. His heroes, like those of 
Bret Harte, show the elemental virtues, gratitude, 
courage, and self-sacrifice beneath coarsest exteriors. 



THE AFTERMATH 347 

It has always seemed a pity that Mr. Hay has not more 
fully developed his peculiar gifts. His wit and sar- 
casm indicate rare satiric powers. He is never imita- 
tive, even when dealing with familiar subjects. His 
long residence abroad has tinged some of his verse 
with a transatlantic color, but his Americani.sm is 
always apparent. 

In 1 87 1 the West certainly had no cause to complain 
of neglect by the literary world. To the life-like 
realism of Bret Harte and John Hay was ppposed the 
florid unrealism of another frontier poet. iCincinnatus 
Heine Miller was born in Indiana in 1841. In his 
thirteenth year he removed with his parents to Oregon, 
and early assimilated himself to the life of the Pacific 
coast. Few poets have been so fortunate in obtaining 
a ready audience. Once more the English critics 
announced the discovery of "the greatest American 
poet," — an announcement that had lost much of its 
novelty through frequent repetition during three gen- 
erations of American verse-writers. Mr. Miller's 
sense of humor must have been appealed to more than 
once when he found himself regarded in England as a 
rare curiosity, the literary expression, as it were, of 
the " Americanism " fondly supposed to be reflected in 
the Wild West shows of " Buffalo Bill. " His English 
admirers, however, were disposed to take his alleged 
eccentricities seriously, and it is not surprising that 
sundry fables should have gathered about his life in 
the West and in the British capital, which for many 
years he allowed to pass unchallenged. 

"Poetry with me is a passion which defies reason," 
he says in the preface to the first edition of his 
"Songs," a statement which few readers will be in- 
clined to dispute. We could put up with the passion- 



348 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

ate, unrestrained flow of utterance, his exuberance of 
metaphor, and his gorgeous descriptions of nature, and 
of men and women the like of whom never lived. His 
chief fault is lack of originality, of creative power. 
His whole plan of transporting Byronic heroes and 
heroines to a virgin soil is but a reminder of those 
dreary days of American doggerel, fifty years before 
Mr. Miller's appearance, when the Indian and the 
settler were supposed to give an "American " coloring 
to transplanted Byronism and its predecessor, Delia 
Cruscanism. (Even Mr. W. M. Rossetti is forced to 
admit that "excitement and ambition" are the "twin 
geniuses of Mr. Miller's poetical character." 

Brushing aside his imitativeness, his false rhetoric, 
his stale platitudes, his frequently defective versifica- 
tion, bad grammar, and tawdry taste, there still re- 
mains enough to entitle Mr. Miller to an honorable 
rank among our poets. He knows how to interest his 
readers, and can tell a story well. The plots are 
almost always old, but in his best tales, as in "The 
Arizonian " and "Isles of the Amazons," there is 
enough of his own to redeem their overflowing faults. 

As descriptions of Western character, Mr. Miller's 
poems are worthless. His heroes and heroines are 
not typically Western, much less typically American. 
As individuals, they are the tawdriest shams that ever 
glittered with tin swords and tinsel armor on the melo- 
dramatic stage. The broad, free play of his fancy is 
least imitative when dealing with the titanic grandeur 
of Western scenery. For this reason his "By the 
Sun-Down Seas " is the most original though the 
least sensational of all his more ambitious work. 

But such affectations as "Aridzone," "Arizit," and 
"Czar of Rusk," as well as his confused metaphors 



THE AFTERMATH 349 

and cockney rhetoric, must be taken as integral parts 
of the poet's impulsive individuality, which, after all, 
is a phenomenal blending of the true and the false. 
He has wisely ignored the advice of critics, has written 
as the inspiration seized him, and poured forth his 
whole soul in his verse, without much regard to liter- 
ary or other proprieties. He has given us no new, 
strong, human characterization. We care little for the 
unnatural men and women whom he poses in the 
"phosphorescent light" of his grewsome fancies. But 
we confess the contagion of his enthusiasm when he 
describes the white-topped peaks that stretch from 
"bleak Alaska" to Darien, like "a line of battle tents 
in everlasting snow." These are "the stern and proud 
patrician fathers of the land " that he loves and makes 
his readers love. Of the grandeur of these mountains, 
the twilight gloom of awe-inspiring canons, the music 
of the streams, the vastness of the "voiceless plains" 
and shoreless deserts, he has sung as no other poet has 
ever dared to do. For doing this, in the spirit that 
he has done it, he is deserving of admiration. This 
it is that constitutes his real Americanism. It is 
significant also that Mr. Miller's lyric on Columbus 
represents the highest poetic expression evoked by our 
quadri-centennial. —- 

These writers may be regarded as the founders of a 
rapidly increasing class whose works are contributing 
so much to a strong and healthful Western literature. 
It would be improper to take leave of these frontier 
singers without referring to one who, if so inclined, 
might have made the Rocky Mountains as familiar in 
song as the Sierras have become in the works of his 
contemporaries. Eugene Field (1850-1895), at one 
time regarded as the Bret Harte of Colorado, was born 



35 o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

in Missouri, and had been a resident of New England 
as well as of the far West. But his literary develop- 
ment properly belongs to the last-named section, which 
he abandoned to assume a position on a Chicago news- 
paper. Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region still 
claim him as their own, and he never entirely re- 
nounced his first allegiance. In his humorous descrip- 
tions of life in the mining camps in the early sixties, 
we recognize Field as the cleverest of Bret Harte's 
disciples, but in such lyrics as "The Wanderer," 
" Little Boy Blue," "Telka," and "The Bibliomaniac's 
Prayer," we gladly hail Field as his own master. 

The literary awakening had its effect in the " middle 
West," as we have seen in the production of "Pike 
County Ballads," the most widely read poems of life in 
the Mississippi region that up to that time had been 
written. But the whole country seemed affected by 
the growing nationalization of our literature. Ohio 
was among the first to respond to this postbellum 
spirit. As early as 1869 the "Western Windows" of 
John James Piatt had shown how the life of that sec- 
tion could be converted to the uses of sincere poetry. 
The truth to nature and to life shown in Mr. Piatt's 
lyrics and idyls of the Ohio Valley (1869, 1871, and 
1879), places their author among the foremost ranks of 
our later writers. Loyal to his art, he has achieved 
success by a manly sincerity that scorns all adventi- 
tious aids in the forms of sensational mannerisms and 
pseudo-dialect so tiresomely characteristic of much of 
our recent literature. 

The genius of poets of the Interior has not made 
the streams of the Mississippi Valley as classic or 
romantic as the Hudson or the Merrimac. Neither the 
Mississippi nor the Ohio has been sung appropriately 



THE AFTERMATH -351 

by local writers. Maurice Thompson has given us 
some good lines on the Wabash ; William O. Stoddard 
has celebrated the sluggish Arkansas, and William H, 
Venable gave us in 1871 his "June on the Miami," 
a poem of much promise, not excelled by any of 
its author's later work. Our great inland lakes have 
inspired no such poetry as have the mountains of 
the Pacific coast. The best poetry of the prairies 
has come from the East. 

The verse of the interior is for the most part con- 
fined to scenes and suggestions of domestic life. There 
is little poetry in the ballads and legends of Will 
Carleton, who by birth and training may be said to 
belong to the middle West. But the tender sentimen- 
tality with which they treat commonplace subjects 
appealed to a wide constituency not at all inclined 
to be critical. 

The one singer who seems at present to eclipse 
in public favor all other poets of his section is the young- 
est yet considered in these pages. James Whitcomb 
Riley was born at Greenfield, Indiana, in 1853. After 
a varied career in keeping with the unconventional 
turn of his mind, he found himself becoming famous 
as a local poet under the name of "Benjamin F. John- 
son of Boone." The patois in which most of his lyrics 
were composed, and which, for the sake of convenience, 
has been called " The Hoosier Dialect," has led many 
to regard him as the most typically American of our 
younger poets. But in many respects he is the most 
artificial of our more conspicuous singers of this realis- 
tic era. As in the case of Whitman, his gravest faults 
appear on the surface. More especially in his earlier 
poems there is a constant striving for effect, as though 
depending upon eccentricity rather than merit to attract 



352 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

attention. This impression is increased by an obtrusive 
simplicity, savoring more of art than of nature, and 
by a resort to adventitious aids depending largely upon 
the mechanical art of the printer. The success with 
which this style has been imitated by unimaginative 
verse-writers is an indication of its artificiality. But 
in spite of his affectations and questionable methods, 
the true spirit is present. Riley has not yet proved 
himself the Burns or Whittier of the interior, and per- 
haps has no ambition to be considered a follower of 
either. But more than any other poet between the 
Alleghanies and the Sierras he has succeeded in ideal- 
izing in the popular mind the every-day life of inland 
America. Others have attempted the same thing on 
a higher key, and have won more applause from the 
critics, but Riley's songs have gone straight home 
to the hearts of the people. The life that he portrays 
he knows, not so much from observation as from actual 
participation. 

Like the great majority of our later poets, Riley 
is a confirmed sentimentalist. If he were not, he would 
not be so popular with Americans, in some respects 
the most sentimental of contemporary people. But 
beneath all his emotionalism there is a vigorous, manly 
tone that rings with the notes of a sturdy, far-reaching 
democracy. The sense of human brotherhood is ever 
present with him. In the ordinary and the common- 
place he can detect the germs of a true nobility. No 
fellow-being is too humble for his sympathy. 

It is no reproach to Riley that he is the poet 
of heart rather than of the soul, of sentiment rather 
than conviction. We look in vain for that subtle 
insight that charms us in Whittier's " My Playmate " 
and " In School Days." On the other hand, Riley 



THE AFTERMATH 353 

has a far keener appreciation of humor and a more 
delicate musical sense than the New England poet, 
so that his verse is rarely open to the charge of 
prosiness. 

Mr. Riley has honorably resisted the temptations that 
beset a truly musical singer. He has amusingly proved 
that he might have echoed Poe for a short time and 
then have been forgotten. In painting the prospect 
from his own door, he has chosen the wiser course, 
for though this prospect may sometimes seem spirit- 
ualized through the medium of his exuberant fancy, 
it is none the less acceptable. He has caught the 
gentler aspect of his prosaic surroundings, and shown 
that there is a poetic side even to the hard conditions 
of rural life in that section. If the " green fields and 
running brooks " of Indiana are wanting in the pic- 
turesqueness of the rocky sea-coast and roaring brooks 
of New England, or the gloomy canons and snow- 
capped peaks of the far West, it is not the fault of 
that State's most eminent poet. 

The new literary movement in the middle West is 
encouraging. By whatever name we call it, realism 
or veritism or localism, the new tendency is, in prin- 
ciple, a development that makes for truth. It has 
wisely taken as its motto : " Provincialism is no ban 
to a truly national literature." We gladly hail its 
chief exponent as a living, active force in the world 
of letters, who can bravely discard the " crumbling 
idols " of the past, and advocate principles which, being 
alive, can impart life. It is well to remind ourselves 
that American literature did not die with the New 
England writers, any more than English literature died 
with the Elizabethan age. Dead indeed must be the 
literary spirit that reflects only the thoughts and sen- 

23 



/ 



354 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

timents of the past. The danger of this recent ten- 
dency is the one common to all such efforts. The 
history of American literature is full of warnings, if we 
will but heed them./ The determination to create a 
truly national literature has been the bane of many 
writers since Revolutionary days, and the result has 
been most depressing. This latter effort to institute 
a " Western literature," distinct from the Eastern, is 
fraught with the same peril. The purpose becomes 
.so painfully obvious that spontaneity is lost 

We hear a great deal in these days about " local 
color," but after the last word has been spoken on the 
subject, we are still confronted with world-old principles. 
It may be assumed that all great writers have reflected 
the spirit of their own age, but unless they did more 
than that, they would never have survived their own 
generation. Because they troubled themselves little 
about local color, and represented the universal thoughts, 
aspirations, and feelings of humanity, because, in a word, 
they thought more of the eternal verities than of tran- 
sient veritism, their works have always appealed to the 
best that there is in human nature. All the coldness 
attributed to classic art has not shorn it of its real beauty. 
The silent messages that are borne down the centuries 
serve to stimulate the genius of to-day. True art is 
independent of time or place. This stale truism seems 
likely to be lost sight of by those who are constantly 
clamoring for something that will be distinctly different 
from, though not necessarily better than, what has been 
produced in the East. Old ideals, we are told, are but 
figures of speech. "As a matter of fact," we are 
assured, "they are being worn away. An impalpable 
sand, blown upon them by ceaseless winds from free 
spaces, has worn them down; their blurred features 



THE AFTERMATH 355^ 

wear a look of vague appeal. They are no longer as 
gods." Yet we doubt if the sane judgment of the 
AmericaiT people at the end of the nineteenth century- 
finds more real satisfaction in the hackneyed senti- 
mentalism of " The Old Homestead " and " Blue Jeans " 
than in the alleged romanticism of Hamlet or Antigone. 

Strained efforts to accomplish "something different 
from the past," have never resulted in genuine creation. 
The local literature of the great interior will come 
spontaneously, and not as a result of preconcerted 
effort. The light of truth that has penetrated the dark 
shadows of the world will continue to glow, regardless 
of theories or prejudices. Neither radical nor con- 
servative, it makes itself felt, because in its very essence 
it is irresistible. 

The cause of localism should be sufficient to stand 
alone, yet our Western veritists have seen fit to ally 
themselves with impressionists in art, and are making 
common cause. In discarding everything that is sug- 
gestive of Eastern Americanism, they do not hesitate 
to applaud the latest methods of European impres- 
sionism. Hamlin Garland, whose words have already 
been quoted, may justly be regarded as typifying 
the consummate flowering of Western veritism. Mr. 
Garland's genius deserves nothing but praise, for he is 
certainly one of the most original and creative of our 
younger writers. His attractive volumes should con- 
vince the most sceptical that American literature still 
keeps pace with material development. Yet, when he 
attempts to graft continental impressionism upon Ameri- 
can methods, he seems to be taking a step backward. 

Of late we are hearing less of Western or Southern or 
Eastern literature as such. At the same time it is grati- 
fying to note the steady if somewhat tardy growth of 



356 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

the literary spirit in the middle West, When we consider 
what has already been contributed by that section, and 
the promise disclosed by younger writers who have 
come into prominence during the last decade of the 
century, we realize that in the West there is something 
deeper, if less obtrusive, than her material prosperity. 

If the gods are well pleased when they see great 
minds contending with adversity, the experience of the 
South after the war must have furnished much satisfac- 
tion to high Olympus. It is no wonder that sadness 
is the keynote of Southern song as echoed in the strains 
of Hayne, Timrod, and Ryan. Far different from the 
self-reliant, vigorous tone of the West, as reflected in 
its literature, was the spirit of the new South, weighed 
down by heritage of woe, but still bravely breathing its 
notes of hope and cheer. Clear and pure came the 
strains of that musical singer, whose brief but cour- 
ageous life is one of the saddest, as it is one of the most 
inspiring, in the history of our literature. Sidney Lanier 
(1842-1881) was born at Macon, Georgia, graduated at 
Oglethorpe College in i860, served in the Confederate 
army, was taken prisoner, and released after five months 
of confinement. For many years he was an invalid, but 
up to the end battled bravely with adverse fate. His 
poem "Corn" in Lippincott's Magazine for February, 
1875, compelled the first recognition of his merits. 
There was, perhaps, a suggestion of Timrod's " Cotton 
Boll," but the poem was representatively Southern. 
Lanier was the antithesis of Whitman. Each had 
decided notions on the mechanism of verse, and each 
in his way was a reformer and reactionist. It would 
perhaps have been better for Lanier's poetic fame if he 
had been less of a musician and more of an artist in the 
broadest sense. 



THE AFTERMATH 357 

Lanier's " Hymns of the Marshes " may be pronounced 
the highest expression of our native Southern song, 
with the .possible exception of some of Hayne's best 
lyrics. Such seductive music, such beauties of descrip- 
tion, such aptly chosen words are not common in our 
later literature. As in the case of Poe, Lanier's whole 
organization seemed attuned to harmony, though he 
had the advantage in a more profound conception of 
musical laws. The human element, so lacking in Poe, 
is conspicuous in the younger singer. His sympathies 
went forth to the poor and ill paid. He scorned the 
doctrine that human labor is a commodity to be adjusted 
by purely economic laws. He felt, as others before him 
have felt, how miserably false is the decree that makes 
human creatures' lives depend on the pitiless laws of 
trade. He was as thorough a democrat as Walt Whit- 
man, though his ideal was very different. The physical 
was subordinated entirely to the spiritual. 

" My democrat [he wrote], the democrat whom I contemplate 
with pleasure, the democrat who is to write or read the poetry of 
the future, may have a mere thread for his biceps, yet he shall 
be strong enough to handle hell ; he shall play ball with the 
earth ; and albeit his stature may be no more than a boy's, he 
shall still be taller than the great redwoods of California ; his 
height shall be the height of great resolution, and love, and 
faith, and beauty, and knowledge, and subtle meditation; his 
head shall be forever among the stars." 

Such intellectually was the young Southerner. His 
heights were those named, and though his head was 
among the stars, he kept a steady foothold upon the 
earth. Physically prostrated, he carried out his life 
work from the " height of great resolution." Discour- 
agements attended him, but with a promethean spirit 
he met and defied them. Dying in his thirty-ninth year, 



3s8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

he left much that was incomplete. His small volume 
of verse is but the pedestal of the fair monument he 
had hoped to rear; but even this is sufficient to show 
the keen sense of beauty, the refined taste, and the 
creative genius of a true poet. 

In turning from Lanier to Maurice Thompson,^ we 
find a poet equally representative of the South. It 
is the joyous out-door life of the South, the songs of 
Southern birds, the breezes from Southern lakes and 
bayous, the fragrance of Southern blooms that vivify 
the " Songs of Fair Weather " and later poems of this 
author, who in spite of his present residence is to be 
considered a Southern writer. Like a true Southron, 
he is an enthusiastic sportsman. Diana is the subject 
of his most picturesque poems, and the bow, gun, and 
reel figure in his best lyrics. He is master of a direct, 
straightforward diction that charms by its simplicity. 
In one of his prose essays, he refers to the irresistible 
force with which grand men assert themselves, " without 
noise, or contortion, or bluster, — a steadfast eye, a 
calm face, a quiet manner, an even voice." It is this 
impression of reserved strength which imparts force to 
his own writings. His language is that of a high-bred 
scholar, — of one who without being in the least obtru- 
sive, or self-assertive, makes his words and thoughts 
sink deep into the reader's or hearer's mind. He is 
moreover emphatically the poet of the New South. 

Professor J. W. Davidson, in his " Living Writers 
of the South" (1869), mentions the names of no less 
than two hundred and forty-one writers as belonging 
to that section. Of these, one hundred and twelve are 
classified as writers of verse. "Some of the writers," 
in the estimation of the editor, "have talents and 
1 1844-1901. 



THE AFTERMATH 359 

character, with corresponding results, which enable 
them to stand in the front rank of American authorship. 
Some have limited abilities, and some have none." 
It is safe to predict that not half-a-dozen of these hun- 
dred and twelve verse-writers living in 1869 will be 
generally remembered at the end of the century. 
Among the few whose works deserve to live, should be 
mentioned the gifted woman who has rightly been 
called the "greatest Southern poetess," Mrs. Margaret 
(Junkin) Preston. 

During, or shortly after, the war, Mrs. Preston 
wrote her " Beechenbrook, a Rhyme of the War." 
The book is little read now, perhaps never was much 
read in the North, but is deservedly regarded as one of 
the best poetical contributions to war literature from 
the Southern side. When, in 1870, her "Old Songs 
and New" appeared, there was evidence of a firmer 
touch, a deeper, more original line of thought than was 
promised in her earlier volume. Her powers showed 
to still better advantage in her "Cartoons," published 
in 1875. It is the poems in this book that entitle her 
to the distinction of being the leading poetess of her 
section. The Old Masters, ancient legends, and 
modern events, form the subject-matter of these admi- 
rably wrought " cartoons. " There is an elevated tone, 
an artistic, poetic atmosphere, a wealth of suggestion 
about these poems that makes each a study. Without 
an appearance of didacticism, there is underlying each 
some profound lesson, some subtle thought, some wise 
philosophy. Though a true adopted daughter of the 
South, she is too broadly American to be provincial. 
It must be conceded that in her home poetry she has 
fallen short of seizing and portraying the truly sen- 
suous. Southern environment that marks "Down the 



36o HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Bayou, and other Poems" of her sister singer, Mrs. 
Mary Ashley Townsend. 

The South has not been behind the Pacific coast and 
the middle West in purely local contributions. Irwin 
Russell (1853-1879) and Joel Chandler Harris may 
be considered pioneers in this now well-worn field. 
Younger writers born during the latter half of the cen- 
tury have presented the lighter and more humorous side 
of Southern life and character in their dialect tales and 
poems. 

Significantly enough, Walt Whitman's theory that 
the true union of the States is to be brought about by 
the poets is receiving some verification at the South. 
Among all the recent Southern writers of the higher 
class this trait of unionism is conspicuous. A con- 
queror may easily forgive, but it is quite another matter 
for the conquered to forget. If the great philosopher 
of antiquity could have foreseen these unpretending 
rhymesters like Hayne, Lanier, Thompson, and later 
Southern writers struggling against fearful odds, reso- 
lutely looking forward and not back, working in their 
own way for the development of a true and far-reaching 
nationalism, he might have reversed the judgmer^t that 
excluded poets from the ideal republic. As the spirit 
of song at the North was one of the most potent agents 
in arousing Americans to the realization of a great 
wrong, so in the succeeding generation, both at the 
North and the South, it has been one of the influential 
causes toward reconciliation and concord between the 
sections. 

During the period to which this chapter is devoted, 
New England and the Middle States, while not retaining 
exclusive prominence in American letters, have not 
forfeited the leadership. In spite of the diffusion of 



THE AFTERMATH 361 

the literary spirit. New York and Boston continue to 
be our literary centres as fully as when Bryant and 
Longfellow were in their prime. Among those whose 
careers connect the golden era of American song with 
the present realistic period, Edmund C. Stedman is 
easily foremost. Born at Hartford in 1833, he in- 
herited his intellectual traits from a distinguished New 
England ancestry, but more directly from his mother, 
who is still remembered as the author of several vol- 
umes of verse. 

As correspondent at the front for a New York jour- 
nal, Stedman saw much of the horrors and excitement 
of war. His " Alice of Monmouth, an Idyl of the 
Great War" (1864), reads as if struck off at white 
heat. In spite of imperfections, it remains, with its 
strength of contrasts, its glowing descriptions, its vigor- 
ous, stirring action, the best narrative poem written 
contemporaneously with the events of the war. The 
man who could give us such work as this " Idyl " 
had no business dallying with imitative verse. The 
young poet had cut loose the leading strings of 
Tennyson and Hood, and had begun to walk alone. 
But it was not until 1869 that Stedman's most finished 
poem appeared. " The Blameless Prince " is not alto- 
gether pleasing, but it is strong, graphic, and pathetic, 
and told with a poetic grace and power that moves 
to its climax with all the stateliness and all the fatality 
of a Grecian tragedy. 

One who can so well sound the spiritual depths can 
hardly be expected to fathom all the mysteries of 
creation. If Stedman has not been successful as an 
out-door poet, it is not because the artificialities of 
city life appeal to him more strongly than fresh fields, 
ocean waves, or mountain breezes, but because he is 



362 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

more than all a poet of humanity. The human heart 
and soul are as much part of the broad economy 
of nature as are the songs of birds, changes of seasons, 
or the elemental features of land, sea, and sky, and 
in this sense Nature has no truer poet among us than 
the author of " The Blameless Prince." 

Though of strong classic tastes, Stedman is pre-emi- 
nently a poet of his own era. He is in accord with 
his age, and therefore its fit interpreter. As a result, 
perhaps, of his journalistic life, he seems to have the 
faculty of noting down and appropriately celebrating 
current events. His "occasional" poems are by no 
means ephemeral. As a poet-patriot he sings us 
his "Cavalry Song;" as poet-banker, he discovers 
" Pan in Wall Street," and as poet-scholar brings us 
" News from Olympia." But whatever he tells is 
worth listening to. 

Even more than for his attractive verse, American 
literature is indebted to Mr. Stedman for his prose 
essays on contemporary poets and the nature of poetry 
in general. He is our foremost living critic and man 
of letters. In his "Victorian Poets" (1875) he was 
one of the first to discuss the true relations between 
modern science and verse, and to discern that there 
need be no irreconcilable warfare, though the " tem- 
porary struggle " had " seriously embarrassed the poets 
of the era." He predicted that poetry would not be 
able fully to avail herself of the aid of science until 
her votaries should " cease to be dazed by the pos- 
session of a new sense." Slowly this great truth has 
made its way, as illustrated by recent literature. It 
is well that in the dying years of this utilitarian century 
there should come from America this clear and manly 
voice in favor of great ideals. However changing the 



THE AFTERMATH 363 

fashions of popular verse, behind it all the spirit of 
truth and beauty remains essentially unchanged. As 
the voice of man's inmost soul, poetry can no more 
be banished from life than the light of stars from the 
sky. This poet-critic considers poetry the voice not 
of the past alone, but of the future as well; that it 
will continue " the expression of the manner in which 
revealed truths and truths as yet unseen, but guessed 
and felt, affect the emotions and thus sway man's soul ; " 
that modern science, instead of annihilating the spirit 
of song, will open up new and broader vistas. It is 
this serene optimism that has characterized Mr. Stedman 
through life. Though he has long since ceased to be 
included in the list of " our younger poets," the spirit 
of his writings is so fresh and buoyant that it seems 
impossible to think of him as growing old. To his 
readers he is and always will be the poet of youth, 
hope, and good cheer. 

The year 1855 is memorable as ushering in the 
initial volumes of two poets representing the two 
extremes of American verse, the one to be greeted 
by Emerson as "at the beginning of a great career, 
which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere 
for such a start ; " the other to be commended, though 
somewhat later, by the elder Hawthorne for the " rich, 
sweet, and imaginative" strains, that have continued 
to please so large a range of readers. Whitman's 
"Leaves of Grass," the matured work of a man of 
thirty-six was published in the same year with T. B. 
Aldrich's " The Bells," the unripe product of a youth 
of nineteen. The elder fondly believed that his book 
would revolutionize the literary world; the younger 
thought so little of his performance that he has since 
repudiated it as well as some of his later works. 



364 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

In following his own advice and letting his art be 
" all in all," Aldrich has undoubtedly sacrificed strength. 
He makes no pretension to profound thought or deep 
wisdom. His best poems are suggestions, hints ; strong 
in what they leave unsaid, and most imaginative when 
stimulating the imagination of the reader. Like Taylor 
and Stoddard he made early excursions in Orientalism, 
for which his vivid fancy and fervid language well 
adapted him. His sonnets are among the most perfect 
in modern English. His lyrics have the faculty of sing- 
ing themselves and clinging to the memory. More than 
any other of our living verse-writers he understands the 
use of that much abused expression, " word-painting." 
He is lavish with his phrases, and most skilful in 
their selection. It is perhaps inevitable that such a 
cunning artist should be guilty of mannerisms. The 
profusion of azure, damask, emerald, and gold palls 
upon one. Amid a superabundance of musk, aloes, 
and myrrh, moonshine, roses, and violets, one longs 
for the tonic effects of sunshine and pure, fresh air. 
When our poet sings of nature, it is that of the green- 
house, or as seen from the drawing-room window. 

Aldrich is a master in the art of surprise. It is this 
that has made his prose tales famous even in several 
continental languages. " Corydon" is " Margery Daw" 
in poetic miniature. The great defect of both his prose 
and verse is a proneness to sentimentalism which reaches 
its climax in his prose tale " Quite So." On the other 
hand, that he can write strong, nervous verse is appar- 
ent in his sonnets " Fredericksburg," " Egypt," and 
" By the Potomac," as well as in some passages in 
"Spring in New England," "Judith," and " Wyndham 
Towers." Reference has been made to the unrelenting 
self-criticism which has enabled him to discard or revise 



THE AFTERMATH 365 

much of his work. Even more conspicuous is the 
steady, well proportioned development of his poetic 
genius.- His best work has been done in the latter 
half of his long literary career. In his later poems 
there is less of moonshine, roses, and violets, and more 
of human life, thought, and feeling. " Mercedes " (1884) 
shows strong dramatic talent. " Wyndham Towers " 
(1889) has been pronounced by a competent critic, 
Mr. F. D. Sherman, " the most artistically finished piece 
of blank verse that has been written in this country." 
This seems a sweeping assertion, but so far as relates 
to our narrative poems in unrhymed pentameter it 
is probably true. Neither Bryant's " Sella " nor Taylor's 
" Lars," as a work of art, can be compared with it in 
sonorous, Tennysonian melody, simple yet elevated 
diction, and adherence to artistic proprieties. It is 
suffused with the atmosphere of the Elizabethan age, 
in spite of the occurrence of such a line as — 

"But boyish hope to footing find at Court." 

In Aldrich's volume, " The Sisters' Tragedy, and 
other Poems" (1890), will be found some of his strong- 
est and subtlest writing. Yet after all that may be said 
of the poet's growth, one instinctively turns to his 
earlier lyrics and sonnets for that perfection in detail 
which places the author of " Wedded," " Tiger Lilies," 
" Identity," and " Pursuit and Possession " at the head 
of his kind, if not in a niche peculiarly his own. 

" We shall never have a poetry of our own till we 
get over this absurd reluctance from facts, till we make 
the ideal embrace and include the real, till we consent 
to face the music in our simple common names, and 
put Smith into a lyric, and Jones into a tragedy." 
These words, which Mr. Howells puts in the mouth 



366 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

of one of his characters, were written in 1871, when 
the revolt of our realists was beginning to make itself 
felt, and are significant as foreshadowing his own 
theories. It cannot be claimed that he has carried out 
his views to their logical fulfilment in his verse, be- 
cause he chose to abandon his poetic career before he 
was fairly on the way. He evidently believed prose 
to be his proper form of expression, and few of his 
readers will quarrel with him on that account. As the 
oldest of our writers born West of the Alleghanies to 
achieve so great a fame, and descended from a not 
remote Welsh ancestry, he literally, as well as figura- 
tively, infused new blood into our literature. The 
only important memorials of his poetic career are the 
volumes published in 1873 and 1894. Yet there is suffi- 
cient to show some of the traits that have secured fame 
for his novels. Many of his shorter pieces have all 
the finish and suggestiveness of Aldrich's best work. 
As far as he went, especially in "Avery" and in his 
hexameter poems, he succeeded in making "the ideal 
embrace and include the real." But through them all 
is a vein of graceful fancy not generally associated 
with notions of modern realism. 

The success of Mr. Howells in a different branch of 
literature has diverted attention from his verse. He 
has been true to his own talents in preferring to be an 
eminent novelist rather than a minor poet. As the 
exponent of the "finer art of our day," he stands un- 
rivalled among his countrymen, and may well afford 
to regard with indifference his waning fame as a verse 
writer. 

John T. Trowbridge, a native of western New 
York, is another poet whose prose has overshadowed 
his verse. Twelve years older than Bret Harte, and 



THE AFTERMATH 367 

early known as author of "The Vagabonds," he may 
be considered a pioneer of the realistic school in 
America. He has given us some faithful reproduc- 
tions of certain light and dark sides of American char- 
acter. "The Emigrant's Story" (1874) is written in 
the metre which our verse writers at one time labored 
so diligently to naturalize in our verse. It is to be 
regretted that they were not more successful, for Long- 
fellow has proved how well adapted it is to narrative 
poetry. But the efforts of Stedman, Howells, Harte, 
Taylor, and Trowbridge have not resulted in popular- 
izing the English hexameter. The dialect poem ,of 
" Old Simon Dole" is a strong character sketch. It is 
the autobiographical story of a hard, thrifty, and 
utterly selfish farmer, a type of character ignored by the 
sentimentalists, who see only the poetic side of rural 
life. Only such authors as Mrs. Cooke, Trowbridge, 
and Hamlin Garland have done the subject justice. 

A lively fancy, truth to nature, and a wholesome 
out-door spirit characterize the best of Trowbridge's 
poetry. The fidelity with which he has painted certain 
small-minded, hardened creatures does not blind him 
to the brighter and more attractive side. "The Emi- 
grant," with his honest toiling, his restless energy, and 
devotion to wife and family, is a better, more common, 
though not less real, type of American than the 
serenely selfish Simon Dole. It may be mentioned 
also that this realistic poet has sung true and beautiful 
lyrics of country life. 

Among the few living poets who have preserved 
the traditions of the elder day is William Winter, 
whose essays in dramatic criticism hold high rank. 
Born in Massachusetts in the same year with Aldrich, 
his literary career may be said to be almost identical 



368 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

in duration. His first book of poems was published 
when he was but eighteen. Like Aldrich, he has re- 
jected much of his earlier work, consenting to rest his 
reputation as a poet on his volume published in 1880 
and revised in 1888. Poetry with him, as he expresses 
it, has been experienced "as a feeling, not pursued as 
a design," though it has been "the main motive and 
object of his mental activity." He prefers the old 
school of English lyrical poetry, " of which gentleness 
is the soul and simplicity the garment." It is for this 
gentleness and simplicity rather than for any rare de- 
gree of originality or force that his verse is noted. As 
was to be expected from one of such critical insight, 
his technical execution is almost faultless. As a lyric 
poet, he may be classed with Poe in melancholy music 
and ease of versification. Both " Orgia" and " Erebus" 
might have been written by the earlier poet without in 
the least detracting from his fame. 

An echo of Dantean mysticism, which found utter- 
ance in the impassioned strains of "Vita Nuova," may 
be discerned in the writings of a New York poet, who 
is still in perfect accord with his age. In 1875 Mr. 
Richard Watson Gilder published his little volume, 
"The New Day," which has been considered the 
poetic expression of his "young life." He calls it "a 
poem in songs and sonnets." The general reader, not 
possessing the inclination to study deeply between 
the lines or to attempt the elucidation of certain 
obscurities, will find in this work a series of exqui- 
sitely written love-poems, interspersed with songs, 
odes, and "interludes," whose connection with the 
main subject is not always apparent. The poet, like 
his model, appeals — 

"To every captive soul and gentle heart." 



THE AFTERMATH 369 

It is not surprising that he should be misunderstood, 
or, except by a few, not understood at all. He wan- 
ders in the highest realms of spiritual poetry, whither 
in these days not many care to follow. When he 
descends to solid earth he gives us lines full of force 
and masculine vigor. In its striking beauty of ex- 
pression, dreamy mysticism, and faultless melody, 
" The New Day " differs from anything produced among 
us during the present period. In 1894 Mr, Gilder 
published, under the title of "Five Books of Song," 
a collective edition of his verse, which, until he has 
produced something more important, may be regarded 
as his representative work. Behind the veil of allegory 
that obscures his verse shines the spirit of beauty, 
pure and translucent. Like his "morning that comes 
singing o'er the sea," he illumines and irradiates the 
dark chambers of death, pain, and sorrow, teaching the 
way "that leads from darkness to the perfect day." 
Devoutly religious, he discerns in the creative poet 
an inspiration to heroism, an insight that anticipated 
science, a spark of the divinity that creates worlds and 
suffuses the actions of universal laws with the light of 
universal love. But he betrays neither an undue sen- 
timentalism nor an overwrought didacticism. It is 
impossible that such strains should strike the popular 
fancy, and the poet himself is probably content to be 
accepted by the few. 

New York society has a representative novelist in 
Edgar Fawcett. It would be a trite criticism to say 
that his versatility as novelist, dramatist, essayist, 
satirist, and poet, has detracted from absolute excel- 
lence in any one direction. The vast improvement of 
his later upon his earlier work is at least a hint of what 
he might have accomplished if he had confined his 

24 



370 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

talents to higher literature. His "Romance and 
Reverie" (1886) showed such a decided advance over 
his previous efforts as at once to place him in the front 
rank of our contemporary versifiers. His poetry- 
evinces a remarkably vivid fancy and occasional mys- 
ticism, but even his best work betrays his characteristic 
weakness, a strained effort to say something startling. 
His exasperatingly frequent use of the exclamation 
point seems only to emphasize his obvious attempts to 
astonish. He has published some of the best social 
satires that have appeared in recent years. 

With the examples of early American poets before 
him, it required more than ordinary faith and courage 
on the part of Charles DeKay to revive orientalism 
in verse. In his "Vision of Nimrod" (1881) and 
"Vision of Esther" (1882), this poet has undertaken, 
while dealing in scenes and actors of a far-off land and 
time, to " aim at problems of the West to-day. " The 
evolution of life and the correlation of races are the 
ambitious themes suggested by these two volumes. 
There are admirable descriptive passages, but it is 
sufficient to refer to the modern thought disguised 
under ancient conditions, and a certain mystic ideal- 
ism, without dwelling unnecessarily on technical faults 
and evidences of hasty composition. Mr. DeKay's 
best short poems show an earnestness of feeling and 
warmth of passion that scorn the more polished art of 
one less conscious of a high purpose. 

In this chapter only native American writers are 
considered. Such a limitation, of course, should not 
exclude George Parsons Lathrop, who, by reason of 
his parentage and ancestry, may be justly considered 
a native. It is to be regretted that this writer has not 
followed more industriously his early taste for verse 



THE AFTERMATH 371 

writing. His "April Aria," "Rune of the Rain," 
"Helen at the Loom," and "Night in New York," 
show something far deeper than mere grace and fancy. 
Mr. Lathrop was not the first to find in the electric 
telegraph an inspiration for poetry, but on that subject 
nothing better has been written than his " Singing 
Wire," with its subtly poetic application. 

The list of younger singers, born in the latter half 
of the century, is an extensive one. Charles Henry 
Luders (1858-1891), George E. Woodberry, Henry A. 
Beers, Arlo Bates, George E. Montgomery, Frank D. 
Sherman, Clinton Scollard, and others whose works in 
the magazines and in separate volumes have attracted 
attention, may be classed as truly representative sing- 
ers of their day. They are too close to the present, 
however, to be fairly judged, and it is but just to 
assume that many of them have yet their best work 
to do. 

It was the custom of our earlier critics to compare 
every female singer with the "Lesbian dame," just as 
in later years it has been the fashion among reviewers 
to draw a parallel between any " sweet songstress " and 
the unapproachable English poetess. If we would 
esteem our poets at their true worth, we must absolve 
ourselves completely from this shallow method of 
criticism. It is not necessary that we should lay 
claims to the possession of a modern Sappho or an 
"American Mrs. Browning," but we can honestly con- 
gratulate ourselves upon the existence of a chorus of 
true-voiced, tender-toned singers, who justly represent 
the feelings, thoughts, and aspirations of American 
womanhood. It is impossible within the limits of 
this chapter to do justice to each one of these, and 
it is therefore in no disparagement of the merits of 



372 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

Mrs. Piatt, Mrs. Dorr, Mrs. Moulton, Miss Monroe, 
"Marian Douglas," Miss Perry, Mrs. Wilcox, Mrs. 
Lathrop, the Goodale sisters, and others East and 
West, that only four have been selected whose works 
may fairly be deemed typical of contemporary song. 

When in 1870 Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, better 
known as " H. H." (1831-1885), a native of Massachu- 
setts, published her first volume of "Verses," critics at 
once recognized the appearance of a writer of unusual 
intellectual force. Intellectualism of her sort was a 

^rare quality among the female poets of America. 

y^\iQXQ was one in whom a strong spiritual personality 
was combined with a mind disciplined by thought, 
observation, and study. As poet, novelist, essayist, 
sketch writer, traveller, philanthropist, Mrs. Jackson 
stands in the front rank of our authors. But it is as a 
poet that she is to be remembered, — a poet of a newer 
idealism but not less devout than that of the "Dial" 
coterie. The problems of life and death, joy and grief, 
good and evil, and the conflicting emotions and expe- 
riences of existence had been revolved in her mind, and 
her meditations found fitting expression in verse, — 

" Ah me, the subtle boundary between 
What pleases and what pains ! " 

This cry of a longing, doubting, questioning soul is 
the keynote of her song. Almost "afraid to fear, 
afraid to hope," she cherishes doubt with all its risks 
and pains, finding it a faith without which she should 
perish. Her poetry is the result of long thought, of 
introspection, of pondering upon questions of life. 
Her so-called " lyrics " are really studies, questionings, 
meditations, cast in lyrical form. Her idealism was 
carried into practical life. Our literature offers no 



THE AFTERMATH 373 

greater instance of self-renunciation than the sacrifice 
by Mrs. Jackson of her last years to the almost hope- 
less cause of the American Indian. 

The work of Miss Emma Lazarus (i 849-1 887), of New 
York, was the kind that lasts. Her early work, " Ad- 
metus," was dedicated to Mr. Emerson, whose influ- 
ence pervaded her whole literary life. In 1876 she 
visited Concord and formed or renewed her acquaint- 
ance with Mr. Emerson and his neighbors. At 
Emerson's death one of the strongest tributes to his 
memory came from this gentle singer, who addressed 
him as "Master and Father." But there is nothing of 
imitation in the fair disciple, though she resembled 
her master in her faith in humanity and loyalty to 
conscience as above conventionalism. 

It was about 1882, according to her biographer, that 
the stories of the wrongs to which her race was being 
subjected in Europe aroused her indignation. For the 
rest of her life she waged with her pen an almost 
ceaseless warfare. Refined, gentle, and reserved al- 
most to shyness, this daughter of wealth and fashion 
could visit without compunction the retreats of the 
poor and squalid, helping and encouraging the needy, 
pleading with the world for their condition, living a 
life that was a greater poem than anything that she 
wrote. In the outcast, the persecuted of her people, 
she saw only the members of that wondrous race that 
in the twilight dawn of recorded history produced its 
poets, prophets, and warriors, that has preserved its 
ancestral traditions through the ages, and still makes 
itself felt through all the shifting changes of modern 
life. From its heroic past she anticipated an heroic 
future, and sought in every way to elevate those who 
had become degraded through years of suffering. In- 



374 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

stead of such work as "The Spagnoletto" (1876), an 
Italian drama of the seventeenth century with little to 
recommend it, she gave us " The Dance to Death " 
(1882), an historical tragedy, based upon the persecu- 
tions of the Jews during the fourteenth century. 
This is one of the very few tragedies which our gen- 
eration in America can transmit to posterity with some 
sense of pride. Invention, imagination, a dramatic 
movement from beginning to end, and a sense of the 
beautiful and the tragic, characterize this remarkable 
work. Miss Lazarus proudly named her last volume 
" Songs of a Semite " (1882). It was in this book that 
she waved aloft "The banner of the Jew," and plead- 
ing not for mercy but for justice, gave us her most 
earnest and heartfelt songs. 

It is with something like relief that we turn from 
the tense, spiritualized atmosphere of these two singers 
to the invigorating out-door lyrics of Mrs. Celia 
(Leighton) Thaxter (1835-1894). No woman has ever 
sung more lovingly of the sea. Her best songs recall 
the ocean-scented breezes, the sounds of flapping sails, 
the dip of oars, the "voices on the gale," and seem to 
echo — 

" The sad caressing murmur of the wave 
That breaks in tender music on the shore." 

To her, nature is divine, but tender, joyous, and 
inspiring. Mrs. Thaxter was born in Aldrich's "old 
town by the sea," and from earliest childhood had 
spent many years at the Isles of Shoals, which she so 
pleasantly described in prose. A susceptible, poetic 
mind, maturing amid such surroundings, could not fail 
to absorb the poetry and romance about her. Her 
father was keeper of a lighthouse, and the courageous 
young girl entered heart and soul into the spirit of 



THE AFTERMATH 375 

the scene. One of the joys of her childhood was to 
light the lighthouse lamp. "That was indeed a pleas- 
ure," she writes. "So little a creature as I might do 
that for the great world." The Isles of Shoals were 
not unknown in literature before she began to write, 
but it was reserved for her to interpret the beauty of 
the place in its true spirit. Her first book of " Poems " 
was published in 1874, and was followed by several 
other volumes, all in the same fresh, unhackneyed style 
that has come to be associated with her name. That 
she was possessed of a vigorous descriptive power, her 
"Cruise of the Mystery," a legend of a phantom slave- 
ship, abundantly shows. But through all her strong, 
graphic lines runs a woman's faith and tenderness. 
"The Sandpiper" has justly been described by Mr. 
Burroughs as a feminine poem, as Bryant's "Water- 
fowl" is "characteristically a man's." 

"We cannot go by Robin Herrick's garden, with its 
fantastic parterres, without begging a holiday sou- 
venir," says Miss Edith M. Thomas in one of her pleas- 
ant prose essays. It cannot be charged that Miss 
Thomas has begged or borrowed from Herrick or any 
other of the early English lyrists, but beyond any of 
her contemporaries she has succeeded in infusing into 
her verse the spirit of the Elizabethan singers. We 
have had plenty of poets and versifiers who have studied 
and sought to imitate the freshness, quaintness, and 
spontaneity of the lyric poets of that wondrous age, 
but none who may claim so closely a natural kinship. 
Nature is this poet's "great griefless friend," to whom 
she turns for guidance and consolation. The revival 
of classic myths in her lyrics seems as natural and un- 
forced as in Herrick's verse. Elves, nymphs, and 
naiads sport through her poems without a suspicion of 



376 HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 

incongruity, but as if of right belonging there. Rich- 
ness of thought, depth of sentiment, and strength of 
imagination are the most obvious traits of this poet. 

It was a noble inspiration which led to the adoption 
of a symbol of death as one of light and hope. The 
work entitled " The Inverted Torch " is an earnest, 
impassioned threnody, consisting of a series of sonnets 
and lyrics. Frequently there are passages rising to 
the heights of genuine sublimity. In majestic num- 
bers the poem moves to its close, when the full mean- 
ing appears : 

" Threading a darksome passage all alone, 
The taper's flame, by envious current blown, 
Crouched low and eddied round as in affright, 
So challenged by the vast and hostile night, 
Then down I held the taper ; — swift and fain 
Up climbed the lovely flower of light again ! 

" Thou kindler of the spark of life divine. 
Be henceforth the Inverted Torch a sign 
That, though the flame beloved thou dost depress, 
Thou wilt not speed it into nothingness ; 
But out of nether gloom wilt reinspire, 
And homeward lift the keen empyreal fire ! " 

Miss Thomas is the youngest writer from whose 
verse we have taken the liberty of quoting in these 
pages. It seems eminently appropriate that the pro- 
cession that has passed in review before us, beginning 
at the source of American civilization, while Elizabeth 
was still upon the throne, should be brought to a close 
by a singer whose strains so fitly recall the Elizabethan 
age, the golden period of English song. 

It is nearly three centuries since English became the 
dominant language in what is now the United States. 
The history of the English-speaking race therein is a 



THE AFTERMATH 377 

record of the evolution of modern democracy. Have 
American literature and American democracy devel- 
oped in corresponding degrees ? I do not see how any- 
one who has given each an impartial study can answer 
in the negative. Our literature, but more especially 
poetry, reflects the national life, character, and experi- 
ence as completely as do our social customs or our 
material inventions. Americans have been charged 
with sentimentalism in devotion to ideals. To sustain 
those ideals they have contributed their hearts' best 
blood, and in defence of those ideals philanthropists 
have labored, orators have pleaded, and poets have 
sung. These pages have been written in vain, if the 
reader has been unable to trace therein the course of 
American development, the crude, provincial life as 
reflected in the imitative verse of the colonial years, 
the strugglings after nationalism in that of the ger- 
minative period, the aspirations toward the beautiful 
and the ideal in that of the formative era, the self- 
reliant, vigorous growth in the literary product of the 
middle years of the century, and the culture and 
polish of the present in the elaborately finished work 
of contemporary writers. Almost every phase of our 
national progress and our national trials where a great 
ethical principle is involved may be found echoed in 
the current verse of each period. There is one notable 
exception, and that is the one most obvious to-day. 
It is idle to ignore the social revolution which, for 
better or worse, we are now undergoing, — the marked 
tendency, as manifested in recent legislation, toward 
social democracy or "social evolution." Unless all 
signs fail, this is something more than a transitory 
ebullition. As yet this latter day socialism has found 
no adequate American singers like those of the anti- 



378 



HISTORY OF AMERICAN VERSE 



slavery contest. The impress of the socialistic spirit 
is far more marked in current English verse than in 
our own. Even Whitman, with all his aggressiveness, 
shrank from the contemplation of it. In spite of this 
ultra-democratic poet's fondness for "powerful unedu- 
cated persons," the labor agitator was wearisome to 
him, and he could not put himself in touch with the 
methods of labor-reformers,^ Whittier's "Songs of 
Labor" were adapted to conditions of half a century 
ago, before the present sharply defined class distinc- 
tions had developed as a result of unions and trusts. 
The social evolutionist is having abundance to say in 
current oratory, politics, essays, and even in novels, 
but is conspicuously absent from the highest realms of 
literature. As yet no latter-day Elliott or Whittier 
has been found to champion the new cause. Is this 
because our modern poets fail to read aright the signs 
of the times, or is it because these reforms fail to 
appeal to the deepest sentiments of our nature.? 

1 See Sketch by Sidney H. Morse, " In re Whitman," p. 379. 



Index 



Index 



Adams, John, sketch of, 45 

" Address, The," by Humphreys, 98 

" Admetus," by Lazarus, 373 

"A Fable for Critics," by Lowell, 286 

" After Dinner Poem," by Holmes, 274 

" Airs of Palestine, The," by Pierpont, 

127 
" Al Araaf," by Poe, 238 
Alcott, A. Bronson, quoted, 302; sketch 

of, 317 
Aldrich, T, B., sketch of, 363; Euro- 
pean fame of , 364 ; likened to Winter, 
368 
"Alice of Monmouth, an Idyl of the 

Great War," by Stedman, 361 
Allen, James, notice of, 116 
Allston, Washington, sketch of, 120; 
complimented by Coleridge, 120; 
Southey's praise, 121 
Alsop, George, 20 
Alsop, Richard, sketch of, 99 
American dialect at its highest in 

Lowell, 281 
"American Flag," by Drake, 132 
American poetry, characteristics of in 
middle period, 116; indebtedness to 
"Knickerbocker School," 149; de- 
velopment of, 168; cannot resist 
charm of nature, 188 ; does not lack 
individuality, 198 ; highest develop- 
ment in Longfellov/, 238; naturally 
lyrical, 266; most productive period, 
285 
Ames, Nathaniel, anticipates Franklin, 

45 
" A Mournful Lamentation," by Green, 

44 
"Anarchiad, The," 100 



" Angel and the Nightingale, The," by 

Allston, 122 
" Anne Matilda," 106 
"An Oriental Apologue," by Lowell, 

286 
Anthology Club, 307 
Anti-Gallic spirit strong, 64 
Acadians, deportation of, inspired 

Longfellow, 216 ; Whittier and 

Hawthorne, 217 
Arnold, Lyndon, quoted, 113 
Arnold, Matthew, on Emerson, 314, 

322 
" Aspects of the Pines," by Hayne, 

187 
"Atlantic Monthly," started, 310 
Aue, Hartmann von der, inspired 

Longfellow's " The Golden Leg- 
end," 226 
Austin, Alfred, criticism of Tennyson, 

178 
" Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," by 

Holmes, published, 273 



B 



" Backwoodsman, The," by Pauld- 
ing, 13I1 ^9° 

Bacon, Nathaniel, death of, marks a 
period, 22 

Barclay, Anthony, notice of, 164 

Barlow, Joel, sketch of, 89 ; attack on, 
by Burke, 91 ; suggests Anne Brad- 
street, 93 

" Barnum's Parnassus," by Butler, 294 

Bartol, C. A., mention of, 302 

Bates, Arlo, mention of, 371 

" Battle Hymn," by Julia W. Howe, 
266 



382 



INDEX 



" Bay Psalm-Book," compilers of, 24; 
second edition of, 26; influence of, 
27; progress from, 42 
" Beechenbrook, a Rhyme of the War," 

by Preston, 359 
Beers, Henry A., mention of, 371 
" Bells, The," by Aldrich, 363 
"Benjamin F. Johnson of Boone," 

nom de plume of Riley, 351 
Benjamin, Park, notice of, 142 
"Bibliomaniac's Prayer, The," by 

Field, 350 
" Biglow Papers," Lowell, influence 
of, 192, 281, 283, 284; appeared, 
209 ; " McFingal " precursor of, 288 ; 
height of satire, 279 
Birth of artistic spirit, 119 
"Bitter-Sweet," by Holland, 204 
"Bivouac of the Dead, The," by 

O'Hara, 265 
" Blameless Prince, The," by Stedman, 

361 
Bleecker, Ann Eliza, mention of, 104 
" Blockade of Boston," 109 
Boker, George H., sketch of, 232 
Brackenridge, H. H., notice of, 116 
Bradstreet, Anne, 30-33; likened to 

Barlow, 93 
Brainard, John G. C, notice of, 152 
Breintnall, Joseph, 52 
"Breitman's Going to Church," by 

Leland, 296 
■' Brook Farm " experiment, 202 
Brooks, James G., notice of, 143 
Brooks, James T., mention of, 320 
Brooks, Maria G., sketch of, 158 
Brownson, O. A., mention of, 302 
Bryant, W. C, influence of descent on, 
28; suggested by Freneau, 85; con- 
tributes to "The Idle Man," 124; 
contrast to Dana as Nature's poet, 
125; and Sands, 137; failed to win 
instant popular applause, 144; pre- 
eminence of, 170; sketch of, 173; 
joins the "Evening Post," 175; in- 
tense earnestness of, 176; poet of 
freedom as well as of nature, 177; 
criticism on, by Burroughs, 1 78 ; 
compared with Emerson, 179; with 
Whitman, 179; sympathy with Greek 
life and literature, 181 ; Bigelow esti- 
mate of, 182 ; " The Flood of Years," 



his swan-song, 183 ( compared with 

Lowell, 184 
" Buccaneer, The," by Dana, 124 
Bulkeley, Peter, quoted, 29 ; sketch of, 

29, 30 ; influence of, 304 
Burke's attack on Barlow, 91 
Burns, Robert, influence on Dinsmore, 

166 
Burroughs, John, criticism of Bryant, 

178; quoted, 190 
Butler, William A., sketch of, 293 ; 

estimate of, 295 
Byles, Mather, quoted, 42 ; mention of, 

268 
Byron's influence on Halleck, 135; on 

Clason, 143 
"By the Sun-Down Seas," by Miller, 

348 



"California Ballads," byB. Tay- 
lor, 234 
Calvert, George H., mention of, 232 
Carleton, Will, mention of, 351 
Carlyle, Thomas, correspondence with 

Emerson, 315 
"Carmen Naturae," by Stoddard, 261 
"Cartoons," by Preston, 359 
Cary, Alice, notice of, 263 
Cary, Phoebe, notice of, 263 
"Castilian Days," by Hay, 346 
"Cavalry Song," by Stedman, 362 
Cervantes, great work appeared, 13, 14 
"Changeling, The," by Whittier, 195 
Channing, W. E., influence of, 301, 320 
" Character of the Province of Mary- 
land," by George Alsop, 20 
"Charlotte Temple," by Rowson, 105 
Chastellux's opinion of Trumbull, 96 
Cheever, George B., tribute to Mrs. 

Sigourney, 157 
" Children of Adam," by Whitman, 

325 
"Christus," Longfellow's hope for, 226 
Christy, Edwin P., mention of, 208 
Clark, Willis G., sketch of, 139 
Clarke, J. F., mention of, 302 
Clarke, McDonald, notice of, 142 
Clason, I. S., notice of, 143 
Clifton, William, notice of, ri2 
Clinch, C. P., notice of, 143 



INDEX 



383 



" Closing Scene, The," by Read, 257 ; 

estimate of, 258 
Cockings, George, mention of, 66 
Coggswell, M. F., sketcli of, 100 
Coleridge, Hartley, tribute to Bryant, 

174 
Coleridge's praise of Allston, 121 
Collins, Wilkie, praise of Allston, 121 
"Colonel's Club, The," by Butler, 293 
Colonial loyalty for George III., 67, 68 
Colonial Maryland, fortunate in poets, 

21 
Colonial New York, contributions of, 55 
Colonialism inconsistent with literature, 

Colonies, growth of hterary spirit in, 15 

"Comet, The," 44 

" Commemoration Ode," by Holmes, 
279 

"Conflagration, The," 44 

Connecticut, singers of, 86; sentimen- 
talists of, 151 

Cook, Ebenezer, publishes " The Sot- 
Weed Factor," 21 

Cook, G. W., " Life of Emerson " by, 
quoted, 302 

Cooke, Philip P., notice of, 262 

Cooke, Rose Terry, sketch of, 265; 
mention of, 367 

"Corn," by Lanier, 356 

"Corydon," by Aldrich, 364 

Cotton, John, mention of, 30 

" Courtin', The," by Lowell, 285 

" Courtship of Miles Standish, The," 
by Longfellow, rank of, 222 

Crafts, William, notice of, 207 

Cranch, C. P., mention of, 320 

" Croakers, The," 132 

" Cruise of the Mystery," by Thaxter, 
375 

" Culprit Fay, The," by Drake, 133 

" Curiosity," by Sprague, 127 

Curtis, G. W., and Brook Farm, 308 



Dabney, Richard, sketch of, 163 
Dana, C. A., and Brook Farm, 308 
Dana, Richard Henry, sketch of, 123; 
compared with Allston, 123; com- 
pared as a poet of nature with Bryant, 
125 



"Dance to Death, The," by Lazarus 

374 
Dante, lateness of appreciation of, 227; 
Ticknor lectures on, 228; Longfel- 
low's translation of, 228; Parsons' 
translation of, 232 ; mysticism of, in 
Gilder, 368 
Davidson, J. W., quoted, 358 
Dawes, Rufus, mention of, 167 
"Day of Doom, The" by Wiggles- 
worth, 35 
" Day of Doom," 42 
De Kay, Charles, sketch of, 370 
" Delia Cruscan Echoes," 103 
Denham imitated by Paine, 109 
" Der Arme Heittrich" by Hartmann 
von der Aue, inspired Longfellow's 
" The Golden Legend," 226 
"Deserted Road, The," by Read, 257 
Development of a national spirit in 

literature, 342 
Development of literary taste in Amer- 
ica shown by date of appreciation of 
Dante, 227 
Dickens, Charles, query about Poe, 244 
Dickinson, John, mention of, 71 
Dinsmore, Robert, sketch of, 166 
" Dixie," by Pike, 262 
Dixon, George W., first appearance of, 

208 
" Down the Bayou, and other Poems," 

by Townsend, 360 
Drake, Joseph R., wrote " To Ennui^" 

132; notice of, 133 
Dryden, imitated by Paine, 108 
Du Bartas, imitation of, 32 
Dwight, J. S., mention of, 320 
D wight, Theodore, mention of, 100 
Dwight, Timothy, sketch of, 88 
" Dying Raven, The," by Dana, 124 



Eastburn, James W., notice of, 136 
" Echo Club and other Literary Diver- 
sions," by B. Taylor, 237 
Edwards, Jonathan, quoted, 35 
" Elegy on Rose," by Keimer, 50 
Eliot, John, and " Bay Psalm-Book," 

24 
Ellett, Elizabeth P., mention of, 255 
" Elsie Venner," by Lowell, 283 



384 



INDEX 



Emerson, R. W., influence of descent 
on, 28; compared with Bryant, 179; 
influence on Whittier, 199 ; foremost 
anti-slavery writer, 2S0 ; influence of, 
301; " Tlie Problem" his most per- 
fect poem, 306 ; sketch of, 309 ; quality 
of first volume of poems, 310 ; no pre- 
tence to establishing philosophic sys- 
tem, 311 ; character of his devotion to 
nature, 312 ; optimism of, and its in- 
fluence, 313; defects in style of, 314; 
view of politics, 315 

"Emigrant Story, The," by Trow- 
bridge, 367 

England, influence of, 13, 33, 61, 300 

"English Traits," by Emerson, 3x5 

"Eureka," by Poe, 248 

" Evangeline," by Longfellow, pub- 
lished, 221 

Evans, Nathaniel, sketch of, 53; quoted, 

54 
" Evening, by a Tailor," by Holmes, 272 
Everett, Edward, mention of, 301 



Fairfield, Lincoln S., mention of, 

167 
" Fanny," by Halleck^ 135 
Faugeres, Mrs. M. V.; 104 
Fawcett, Edgar, sketch of, 369 
Fenner, C. G. , mention of, 265 
Ferguson, Elizabeth G., mention of, 

104 
Fessenden, Thomas Green, notice of, 
116; sketch of, 269; anticipates 
Lowell, 269 
Field, Eugene, sketch of, 349 
First play in America, 109 
" Five Books of Song," by Gilder, 369 
" Flood of Years," by Bryant, 183 
Florence, "Delia Cruscans," in, 105 
" Florence Vane," by Cooke, 262 
Foster, Stephen C, notice of, 208 
Francis, Dr., quoted, 131 
Franklin, Benjamin, influence of, 49; 

and Keimer, 49 
Freneau, Philip, sketch of, 75 ff . ; in- 
terpreter of Indian character, 78 ; 
Stedman's estimate of, 78 ; his most 
interesting poem, 79 ; comparison 



with Schiller, 79; suggests Bryant, 
85 ; patriotism kindred to Whittier's, 
85 ; and Longfellow, 223 
Fuller, Margaret, criticism of Longfel- 
low, 222; Editor of "The Dial," 
306; sketch of, 318 



G 



Gallagher, William D., notice of, 

206 
Garland, Hamlin, sketch of, 355; men- 
tion of, 367 
Garrick, David, influence of, 70 
Garrison, W. L., mention of, 169 
" General Average," by Butler, 294 
German spirit in our poetry, 300 
Gifford, William, quoted, 106; and 

Clifton, 112 
Gilder, Richard W., sketch of, 368; 

analysis of poetry by, 369 
Godfrey, Thomas, mention of, 52 
Godwin, Parke, "Life of Bryant," 

quoted, 137, 175 
Goethe, influence on Longfellow, 219; 

B. Taylor translates " Faust," 235 
" Golden Legend, The," Longfellow, 

source of, 226 
" Gospel Covenant," Bulkeley, 30 
Grayson, William J., notice of, 208 
Greene, Albert, mention of, 266 
Green, Joseph, sketch of, 44 ; mention 

of, 268 
Griffin, Dr., lectures on Dante at Co- 
lumbia College, 227 
Griswold, Dr., attack on, by Whitmer, 

297 
" Guardian Angel, The," by Lowell, 283 
" Gulf- Weed," by Fenner, 265 



H 



Hale, Sarah J., mention of, 255 
Halleck, Fitz Greene, 132 , notice of, 

134 ; literary career ended, 144 
Halliwell-Phillips, J. O., discovery of 

copy of " Newes from Virginia " 

by, 17 
" Hans Breitmann's Party," by Leland, 

29s 



INDEX 



38s 



Harris, Joel C, mention of, 360 
Harte, Bret, caught the picturesque 
color of American life, 207 ; sketch of, 
344 ; quality of verse by, 345 ; merit 
of his unconventionalism, 345 
Hay, John, sketch of, 346 
Hayne, Paul H., sketch of, 186 ; Tim- 
rod rivals, 262 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, reference to 
Jones Very, 185 ; creative genius of, 
194; inspired by Acadians' deporta- 
tion, 217 
Hawthorne, and Brook Farm, 30S 
" Hearts of Oak," by Garrick, influence 

of, 70 
" Heathen Chinee," by Harte, 344 
Hedge, F. H., mention of, 302 
Higginson, T. W., "Life of Margaret 

Fuller," quoted, 307 
Hillhouse, James A., notice of, 152 
Hints of Nationalism, 60 
" Hive Bee-Stock," by Pastorius, 48 
Hoffman, Charles F., sketch of, 141 
Holland, Edwin C, notice of, 113 
Holland, Josiah G., sketch of, 204; was 

above all a moralist, 205 
Holmes, O. W., influence of descent 
on, 28 ; intimately blends science and 
poetry, 190 ; influence on W. W. 
Story, 231 ; aphorism by, 265, 268 ; 
anticipated by Fessenden, 269 ; sketch 
of, 270 ; frankness of, 271 ; " Auto- 
crat of the Breakfast Table " pub- 
lished, 273; good humor of, 274, 276; 
compared to Moliere, 275 ; wisdom 
and wit leave permanent impressions, 
277 ; tribute to Parkman, 278 ; Saxe 
suggests, 270 
Honeywood, St. John, notice of, 116 
Hood, Thomas, imitated by Saxe, 292 
Hooker, Thomas, mention of, 28 
Hopkins, Lemuel, mention of, 100 
Hopkinson, Francis, notice of, 116 
Hopkinson, Joseph, notice of, 116 
Howe, Julia Ward, "Battle Hymn," 

by, 266 
Howells, W. D., quoted, 365 ; success 

of, 366 
"Humble-Bee, The," by Emerson, 

181 
Humor and Satire, 268; quantity of, 
296, 305 



Humphreys, David, sketch of, 97 ; 

" The Address," by, 98 
Hunter, Mrs. Anne, claim to poems by 

Freneau, 80 
" Hymn of the Marshes," by Laurier, 

357 
" Hymn to Death," by Bryant, 179 
" Hymns to the Gods," by Pike, 261 



Idealism and Realism, 300 

" Idle Man, The," founded by Dana, 
124 

Idyllic and Lyric Poets, 213 

" Illustrations of Simple Moral Emo- 
tions," by Dabney, 163 

" Incidental Poems," by Dinsmore, 166 

" Incomparable Mr. Waller, The," by 
Turell, 41 

"Indian Edda," by Longfellow, criti- 
cised, 224 

Ingram compares Poe's " Raven " 
with Pike's " Isadore," 243 

" Inscription for the Entrance to a 
Wood," by Bryant, 173 

Intolerance, supremacy of, 34 

" Inverted Torch, The," by Thomas, 
376 

Irving, Washington, 130 ; tribute to 
Bryant, 1 76 ; compared to Longfel- 
low, 226; American humor began 
with, 270 

Irving, William, mention of, 131 



Jackson, Helen H., sketch of, 372 
James, G. P. R., judgment on Long- 
fellow's " Golden Legend," 227 
Jamestown, colony at, 17 
Johnson, Edward, sketch of, 34 



K 



" Kalevala," by Longfellow, 223 
" Kathrina," by Holland, 204 
Key, Francis Scott, notice of, 116 
" King's Missive, The," by Whittier, 
194 



25 



386 



INDEX 



Kinney, Coates, mention of, 266 
Knapp, S. L., quoted, 62 ; on Freneau, 

81 
" Knickerbocker School," 130 
" Konigsmarke," by Paulding, 132 



Ladd, Joseph B., mention of, iii 
Langstaff, Dr., mention of, 132 
Lanier, Sidney, sketch of, 336 ; sug- 
gests Timrod, 356 ; antithesis of 
Whitman, 356 ; publishes " Hymn 
of the Marshes," 357 
Larcom, Lucy, sketch of, 203. 
" Lars, a Pastoral of Norway," by B. 

Taylor, 235 
" Last Leaf, The," by Holmes, 273 
Lathrop, George P., sketch of, 370 
" Laureate of the South," P. H. Hayne 

called, 187 
" Lays of my Home," by Whittier, 193 
Lazarus, Emma, sketch of, 373 ; quali- 
ties of the poetry of, 374 
"Leaves of Grass," by Whitman, 324 
Leggett, William, notice of, 143 
Leland, Charles G., sketch of, 295 ; 

best war ballad by, 296 
Lewis, Mrs., Poe's friend, sketch of, 

254 
Lincoln's tribute to Bryant, 174 
Linn, John B., notice of, 114 
Literature, in the Middle Colonies, 47 ; 

satire in American, 268 
Literature, struggle for a footing, 16 ; 

standard of improved, 264 
" Little Boy Blue," by Field, 350 
" Little Breeches," by Hay, 346 
Livingston, William, 57, 99 
Local color in American literature, 354 
Lockhart, J. G., criticism of Willis, 344 
Longfellow, H. W , influence of descent 
on, 28; first poem, 63; character of 
his descriptions, 184 ; influence of, 
192; advance shown by, 201; sketch 
of, 213; marked Americanism of his 
poetry, 214; artist's disdain for lit- 
eral accuracy, 214; Evangeline, his- 
tory of, 216; studied technique of his 
art, 218; compared with Goethe, 219; 
attack by Poe, 220; indebtedness to 



Goethe and Schiller, 222 ; " The 
Courtship of Miles Standish," rank 
of, 222 ; criticism of, by Margaret 
Fuller, 222 ; surpassed most poets in 
treating Indian subjects, 223; "Ka- 
levala," 223; poems widely trans- 
lated, 225 ; lacking in humor, 225 ; 
compared to Irving, 226; dramatic 
work shows his weakness, 226; hope 
for " Christus," 226; Ruskin's praise 
of "The Golden Legend," 226; 
G. P. R, James and Bayard Taylor's 
judgment, 227; monologues in "The 
Golden Legend " are fine poems, 227 ; 
introduces Dante, 228 ; excellency of 
his translation, 228; popularity in 
Europe, 229 ; present day's estimate 
of, 230; diary quoted, 231; influence 
on W. W. Story, 231 ; mention of 
T. W. Parsons in " Tales of a Way- 
side Inn," 232 J compared with B. 
Taylor, 234; general excellence of, 
238 
Lovell, Captain, influence of, 61 
Lowell, J. R., influence of descent on, 
28; Pierpont suggests, 169; com- 
pared with Bryant, Whitman, and 
Emerson, 184; influence of " Biglow 
Papers," 192, 279, 281; "Biglow 
Papers ' ' published, 209 ; antici- 
pated by Fessenden, 269; sketch of, 
279; foremost anti-slavery writer, 
280 ; difference from Whittier, 280 ; 
from Longfellow, 280 ; ideal puri- 
tanism of, 283; patriotism of, 283, 
287; treatment received by, 284; 
" The Courtin'," by, 285; " A Fable 
for Critics," published, 286; manly 
tone of his poetry, 288 ; defects of 
his style not important, 288 
"Luck of Roaring Camp, The," by 

Harte, 344 
Luders, Charles H., mention of, 371 
Lyon, Richard, assists in revising " Bay 

Psalm-Book," 26 
Lytle, W. H., notice of, 265 

M 

" Maid of Saxony, The," by Morris, 

dramatic success of, 141 
" Margery Daw," by Aldrich, 364 



INDEX 



387 



Marryat, Captain, criticism of Willis, 
144 

Mason, John, mention of, 72 

" Masque of the Gods," by B. Taylor, 
236 

Massachusetts literary prestige in 
eclipse, 86 ; had no more loyal son 
than Lowell, 288 

" Master and Father," by Lazarus, 373 

Mather, Cotton, quoted, 26, 28, 268 

Mather, Richard, necessity for written 
prayers, 24 : quoted, 24 

Maxwell, William, sketch of, 163 

Maylem, John, quoted, 65 

McClurg, James, mention of, 207 

" McFingal," by Trumbull, 76; worth 
of> 95 ; precursor of " Biglow Pa- 
pers," 268 

McPherson's epics paraphrased by 
Ladd, 114 

Mellen, Grenville, mention of, 167 

" Menander," by Mrs. Morton, 107 

" Mercedes," by Aldrich, 365 

Merry, Robert, 106 

Miller, C. H,, sketch of, 347 ; comment 
on by Rossetti, 348 

" Moan, ye Wild Winds," by B. Tay- 
lor, 234 

'■' Money King, The," by Saxe, 290 

Montgomery, George E., mention of, 

371 

Morrell, William, " Nova Anglia," 23 

Morris, George P., notice of, 141 

Morse, Sidney H., "/« rg Whitman," 
quoted, 378 

Morton, Sarah W., 107; mentioned by 
Samuel Miller, 107 

Murphy, H. C, " Anthology of New 
Netherland," 57 

" My Life is like the Summer Rose," 
by Wilde, 164 

" Mystic Trumpeter, The," by Whit- 
man, 333 



N 



Nack, James, mention of, 167 
Nationalism an established fact, 73, 198 
Nature and man most suggestive 

themes, 190 
Nature, love of, characteristic of Ameri- 
can idyls, 210 



Neal, John, sketch of, 161 ; friendship 
for Poe, 162 

" Newes from Virginia," R. Rich, au- 
thor of, 17; criticism of, 18 

" New Day, The," by Gilder, 368 

" New England's Crisis," 40 

New England, social forces in, 16 ; 
character of civilization in, 23 ; trans- 
lations of Hebrew poets congenial, 
26 ; first book of original poems pub- 
lished in, 31 ; growth in, 33; elegiac 
stage, singers, 43 ; remarkable awak- 
ening of spiritual energy in, 300 

" New Pastoral," by Read, 191 

Norton, C. E., reference to Very, 317 

" Nothing to Wear," by Butler, 293 



O 



Oakes, Urian, mention of, 39 
"Ode on a Grecian Flute," by Stod- 
dard, 259 
"Ode to Posterity," by Pastorius, 49 
" Ode to Simeon De Witt, Esq.," 133 
O'Hara, Theodore, notice of, 265 
" Old Folks at Home, The," influence 

of, 210 
"Old Oaken Bucket, The," by Wood- 
worth, 142 
" Old Simon Dole," by Trowbridge, 

367 
" Old Songs and New," by Preston, 

359 
" Orphic," by Alcott, 317 
Osborn, Langston, notice of, 143, 297 
Osgood, Mrs. F, S., dedication to, by 

Poe, 251 ; sketch of, 255 
Ossian, paraphrases of, 114 
Ovid's " Metamorphoses," translated 

by Sandys, 19, 20 



" P^AN, The," by Poe, 24 

Paine, Jr., Robert T., 106; sketch of, 

108 
Parke, John, notice of, 115 
Parker, Theodore, mention of, 302 
Parkman, Francis, Holmes' tribute to, 

278 



388 



INDEX 



Parodies, by B, Taylor, 237 

Parsons, T. W., sketch of, 232; trans- 
lates Dante, 232 ; comparison with 
Longfellow, 232 

Pastorius, Francis D., sketch of, 48; 
mention of, 200 

Paulding, James K., mention of, 130 

Payne, John H., mention of, 233 

Peabody, Elizabeth, mention of, 302 

"Pennsylvania Pilgrim," 48 

Pennsylvania, liberty of conscience in, 
16 ; singers in, 49 

Percival, James G., sketch of, 153 

Piatt, John J., sketch of, 350 

"Picture of St. John, The," by B. 
Taylor, 235 

Pierpont, John, notice of, 127 

Pike, Albert, " Isadore," compared 
with Poe's "The Raven," 243; 
mention of, 261 

" Pike County Ballads," by Hay, 346 

"Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philo- 
sophical," by Fessenden, 269 

Pinkney, Edward Coate, sketch of, 165 

" Plain Language from Truthful 
James," by Harte, 344 

Poe, Edgar Allan, criticism of Willis, 
143; aided by John Neal, 162; esti- 
mate of Pinkney, 165; onslaught on 
Longfellow, 220; sketch of, 238; did 
not appreciate Wordsworth or Burns, 
239; reverence for womanhood, 241 ; 
wrote but little poetry, 242 ; Dickens' 
query in regard to, 244; opinion of 
" The Sleeper," 245 ; imaginative 
genius narrow, 247; criticism of, by 
Stoddard, 248; devotion to his wife 
and mother, 24S ; "Eureka," 248; 
suffered from over praise, 249 ; faults 
sharply defined, 250 ; Woodberry 
does him justice, 251 ; Winter com- 
pares as a lyric poet with, 269 

" Poems," by Thaxter, 375 

Poems of Nature and American Life, 
172 

" Poems of the Orient," by B. Taylor, 

234 
" Poems on Several Occasions," 50 
" Poems on Slavery," by Longfellow, 

192 
" Poetical Meditations," by Walcott, 

41 



Poets of Sentiment and Passion, 151 ff. 

" Politian," by Poe, 23S 

Pope, Alexander, influence of, 42, 43; 

comments on Ralph, 51 ; imitated by 

Paine, 109 
Prentice, George D., notice of, 167 
" Present Crisis, The," by Lowell, 280 
" President Lincoln's Burial Hymn," 

by Whitman, 330 
Preston, Margaret, sketch of, 359 
Prime, Benjamin Y., sketch of, 66 
" Prince Deukalion," by B. Taylor, 236 
" Prize Prologue," by Paine, 109 
" Problem, The," by Emerson, his best 

poem, 306 
" Progress," by Saxe, 290 
"Prometheus," by Percival, 154 
" Prophet, The," by B. Taylor, 236 
"Proud Miss MacBride, The," by 

Saxe, 292 
Puritan Cassandra, 35 
Puritan Muse, The, 23-46 
Puritan view of world, 23 ; influence 

of, 42, 301 



QuARiTCH, B., reprints of " Newes 
from Virginia" by, 17 



R 



Ralph, James, mention of, 51 
" Raven, The, and other Poems," by 
Poe, 242 ; compared with Albert 
Pike's "Isadore," 243; translations 

of, 253 

Read, T. Buchanan, notice of, 191, 256; 
genuine Americanism of, 257; praised 
by Poe and Longfellow, 257; com- 
mended by Stoddard, 259 

" Rhymes of Travel," by B. Taylor, 

234 

Rice, Thomas D., mention of, 208 

Rich, R., author of " Newes from Vir- 
ginia," 17 

Riley, James W., sketch of, 351 ; com- 
pared with Whittier, 352 

Ripley, George, mention of, 306; ends 
connection with " The Dial," 307 

Rogers, Robert, sketch of, 54 



INDEX 



389 



" Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem, A," by 

W. W. Story, 231 
" Romance and Reverie," by Fawcett, 

370 
Rose, Aquila, sketch of, 49, 50 
Rossetti, W. M., tribute to Miller, 348 
Rowson, Susannah H., sketch of, 104 
Russell, Irwin, mention of, 360 



" Salmagundi Papers " appear, 130 
" Sandpiper, The," by Thaxter, 375 
Sands, Robert C, notice of, 136 
Sandys, George, translations by, 19, 50 
Sargent, Epes, mention of, 266 
Saxe, J . G., sketch of, 289 ; " Progress " 

by, 290 ; humor kindred to that of 

Holmes, 290 ; estimate of, 291 ; 

copied Hood, 291 ; social life of, 293 
Schiller, Freneau compared with, 79 ; 

influence on Longfellow, 222 
Scollard, Clinton, mention of, 371 
Scott, Sir Walter, influence on Sands, 

136 
Scull, Nicholas, mention of, 50 
" Sea Marke," Captain John Smith, 

author of, 18 
Selyns, Henricus, mention of, 56 
" Settler, The," by Street, 187 
Sewell, Jonathan M., notice of, 73, 114 
"Shakespeare Ode," by Sprague, 126 
" Sheridan's Ride," by Read, 257 
Sherman, F. D., quoted, 365; mention 

of, 371 
Sigourney, Lydia H., sketch of, 155 
Sille, Nicasius de, mention of, 57 
Simms, William G., notice of, 208, 262 
" Simple Cobler of Agawam," by Ward, 

26S 
" Singing Wire," by Lathrop, 370 
"Sisters' Tragedy, and other Poems," 

by Aldrich, 365 
Sixty-ninth Psalm in " Bay Psalm- 

Book," 26 
Skelton, translation of Don Quixote, 14 
"Sleeper, The," by Poe, 245 
Smith, Captain John, author of " Sea 

Marke," 18 
Smith, E. H., estimate of R. Alsop, 

99 ; edits first anthology of American 

poetry, 99 



Smith, Sidney, fling at American litera- 
ture, 161 
Snelling, W. J., mention of, 297 
" Snow-Bound," charm of, 199, 209 
" Snow Storm," by Emerson, 179; 

characteristics of, 181 
" Songs of a Semite," by Lazarus, 

374 
"Songs of a Summer," by Stoddard, 

prediction concerning, 261 
" Songs of Fair Weather," by Thomp- 
son, 358 
"Songs of Labor," by Whittier, ^7^ 
" Song of Myself," by Whitman, 337 
" Sot- Weed Factor, The, or a Voyage 
to Maryland," by Ebenezer Cook, 
21 
Southey's praise of Allston, 121 ; tribute 

to Mrs. M. G. Brooks, 158 
" Spagnoletto, The," by Lazarus, 374 
Sprague, Charles, notice of, 126 
" Star Spangled Banner, The," by Key, 

116 
Stedman, E. C, estimate of Freneau, 
78 ; definition of humor, 298 ; sketch 
of, 361 ; classic taste of, 362 ; fore- 
most living critic, 362 
Steendham, Jacob, mention of, 55 
Stoddard, R. H., quoted, 188; criticism 
of Poe's " Ulalume," 248; com- 
mends T. B. Read, 259; experience 
with Poe, 259; sketch of, 260; sec- 
ond only to Lowell as a writer of 
odes, 261 
Stoddard, W. D., mention of, 351 
Story, William W., sketch of, 231 ; re- 
flects Longfellow and Holmes, 231 
Street, Alfred B., notice of, 186; 

praised by Bryant, 186 
"Suicide, The," by Percival, 154 
Symmes, Thomas, mention of, 62 



" Talisman, The," 137 
" Tamerlane," by Poe, 236 
Tappan, W. B., mention of, 166 
" Taurus," by B. Taylor, 234 
Taylor, Bayard, reference to Street, 186; 
judgment of Longfellow's "The 



39° 



INDEX 



Golden Legend," 227 ; sketch of, 
233; "Rhymes of Travel," 234; 
" Poems of the Orient," 234 ; life in 
California, 234 ; compared with Long- 
fellow, 234 ; superiority to Willis, 
235 ; publishes his masterpiece, 235 ; 
gifted translator, 236; parodies by, 
237 ; final estimate of, 237 
Taylor, Benjamin T., notice of, 206 
Tennyson, criticism of, by Austin, 178 
"Tenth Muse, The," Bradstreet, 31, 

33 
" Terrible Tractoration," by Fessenden, 

269 
" Thanatopsis," influence of, 172 
Thaxter, Celia, sketch of, 374 
Thomas, Edith M., quoted, 375 ; esti- 
mate of, 376 
Thompson, Maurice, mention of, 351 ; 

sketch of, 358 
Thoreau, Henry D., poet-naturalist, 

183; sketch of, 317 
Ticknor, translates Dante, 228 
Tilden, Stephen, quoted, 64 
Timrod, Henry, 183 ; surpassed by 

P. H. Hayne. 186; notice of, 262; 

suggestion of in Lanier, 356 
" To Ennui," by Drake, influence of, 

132 
" To Helen," by Poe, 241 
Thompson, Benjamin, sketch of, 40 
Townsend, Mary A., mention of, 360 
Transcendentalism, history of, 303, 304, 

321 ; influence of, 322 
Trowbridge, John T., sketch of, 366; 

qualities of poetry by, 367 
Trumbull's, John, " McFingal," humor 

of, 76 ; sketch of, 94 ; Chastellux's 

opinion of, 96 
Tucker, St. George, 207 
Tuckerman, H. J., reference to Street, 

186 
Turell, Jane, sketch of, 41, 103 
" Two Williams," by Butler, 295 
Tyler, Royall, notice of, 112 



U 



"Ulalume," by Poe, 247 
"Unhappy Lot of Mr, Knott, The," 
by Lowell, 286 



V 



" Vanity of Vanities," by Wiggles- 
worth, 36 
Venable, W. H., mention of, 351 
Verplank, Bryant, and Sands, 137 
Verplank, Gulian, -jt^ 
"Verses," by Jackson, 372 
Very, Jones, notice of, 185 ; influence 

of, 302 ; sketch of, 316 
" Victorian Poets," by Stedman, 362 
Virginia, colonists of, first interested in 
translating classical authors, 26; patri- 
otism in, 70 
" Vision of Esther," by DeKay, 370 
"Vision of Nimrod," by DeKay, 370 
" Visions of Poetry," by Cooke, 262 
" Voices of Freedom " and " Voices of 

the Night," compared, 200 
" Voices of the Night," Longfellow's 
first volume, 213, 221 



W 

"Wagoner of the Alleghanies, 

The," by Read, 257 
Waller, influence of, 42 
Wain, Robert, mention of, 297 
Ward, Nathaniel, mention of, 32, 268 
Warren, Mrs. Mercy, sketch of, 103 
Wasson, D. A., mention of, 320 
" Waterfowl," by Bryant, 174 
Webb, George, mention of, 50 
" Wedded," by Aldrich, 365 
Welby, Amelia, mention of, 256 
Welde, Thomas, assists in compilation 

of " Bay Psalm-Book," 24 
Weymouth, George, voyage of, 13 
Wheatley, Phillis, notice of, 103 
White, Miss, Poe's poem to, 251 
Whitman, Mrs., friendship for Poe, 241 ; 

sketch of, 251 
Whitman, Walt, compared with Bryant, 
179; attitude toward nature, 181; 
Symond's estimate of, 181 ; comment 
on by Burroughs, 190 ; influence of, 
323 ; publishes " LeSves of Grass," 
324 ; admirers of, 327 ; indifference 
to criticism, 328; third edition of 
" Leaves," 329 ; discouragements of, 
329; unique quality of poetry by, 



INDEX 



391 



335 ; religious faith of, 336 ; estimate 
of, 338 ; Lanier's antithesis to, 356 ; 
theory of true national union, 360 
Whitmerj^^ L. A., mention of, 297 
Whittier, J. G., influence of descent on, 
28; kinship to Wigglesworth, 39; 
Freneau's patriotism kindred to, 85 ; 
understands out-door life, 184; secret 
of influence of, 191 ; sketch of, 192; 
ballads of home life, 192; "Lays of 
my Home," revealed genius of, 193 ; 
lacked Hawthorne's creative genius, 
194 ; four finest ballads, 195 ; verse 
better than his prose, 196; Emer- 
son's influence apparent, 199; genius 
shown in "Snow-Bound," 199; faults 
in style of, 201 ; Riley and, 352 
Wigglesworth, Michael, sketch of, 35 ; 

precursor of Whittier, 39 
Wilcox, Carlos, notice of, 166, 178 
Wilde, Richard H., sketch of, 164 
William of Orange, influence of, 16 
Willis, Nathaniel P., sketch of, 144; 
and Pinkney, 165 ; surpassed by B. 
Taylor, 235 
Wilson, "Bryant and His Friends," 

quoted, 126 
"Wind-Clouds and Star-Drifts," by 

Holmes, 190 
"Winter-piece," by Bryant, 179 
Winter, William, sketch of, 368; as a 

lyric poet compares with Poe, 368 
" Witch of Wenham," by Whittier, 195 
" Witch's Daughter," by Whittier, 195 



Wolcott, Roger, sketch of, 40 
Woman's part in American verse, 263 
" Wonderworking Providence," John- 
son, 34 
Woodberry, George E., does Poe justice, 

251 ; mention of, 371 
Woodbridge, Benjamin, elegy on J. 

Cotton, 30 
" Woodman, Spare that Tree," by Mor- 
ris, 142 
Woodworth, Samuel, notice of, 142 
Wood, William, " New England's Pros- 
pect," 23 
Wordsworth's estimate of Allston, 121 
" Wreck of Rivermouth," by Whittier, 

195 
" Wyndham Towers," by Aldrich, 365 



X 



" XiMENA," by B. Taylor, 234 



"Yamoyden," by Sands, 136 
"Yankee Jonathan's Courtship," by 
Fessenden, 269 



"ZoFHiEL," by Mrs. Brooks, 159 



First Lines of Poems Quoted 



A blood-red thing that writhes from 

out, 246 
Again he hves, and what was Homer's 

now, III 
Ah me, the subtle boundary between, 

372 
A life on the ocean wave, 266 
A midnight black with clouds is in the 

sky, 179 
Among the beautiful pictures, 262 
A monument I 've rais'd that shall 

surpass, 115 
And so might be my choice, but that 

I see, 41 
Anna Bradstreate, — Deer neat An 

bartas, 32 
At bidding of vast formless things, 246 
At evening while his wife put on her 

look, 48 
At times a fragrant breeze comes float- 
ing by, 184 

Begin, ye tormentors, your threats are 

vain, 81 
But boyish hope to footing find at 

Court, 365 

Cease, liquid mountains of the foaming 

flood, 6 
Clouds, The, have put their gorgeous 

livery on, 272 
Common, The, unrhymed poetry, 198 
Could I take highest flights of fancy, 

soar, 39 
Creation is enough for me, 178 
Curs'd be the ship that brought him 

o'er the main, "]"] 



Dark was the sky, and not one friendly 

star, 83 
Darts, The, of death within her bosom 

deep, 45 
Day hath put on his jacket, and around, 

272 
Death is no more than one unceasing 

change, 85 
Doom'd, horrid fate, the living Muse to 

see, no 

Each brought in turn, 177 
Earth, The, lehovahs is, 25 

Flapping from out their condor wings, 

245 
For me, I rhyme not for posterity, 135 
For what is Beauty but a faded flower ? 

36, 305 
From silent night, true register of 
moans, 34 

Good to the heels the well-worn slip- 
per feels, 275 

Great God ! I ask thee for no meaner 
pelf, 317 

Hab ich den Markt und die Strassen 

doch nie so einsam gesehen, 219 
Hail, great Apollo, guide my feeble 

pen, 64 
Hail, happy Britain, Freedom's blest 

retreat, 73 
Heroes and bards, who nobler flights 

have won, 106 



394 FIRST LINES OF POEMS QUOTED 



Heavens, The, doe declare the majesty 

of God, 25 
Hunter, The, still the deer pursues, 76 

I am an acme of things accomplished, 
and an, 337 

I am dying, Egypt, dying, 265 

I am he that walks with the tender and 
growing night, 180 

I could not love except where death, 240 

If I sang that song again, 261 

I love thy kingdom. Lord, 88 

In Hexameter sings serenely a Harvard 
Professor, 220 

In visions of the dark night, 240 

I, on occasion too, could preach, but 
hold it wiser far, 287 

Is he old who owes nothing to fraudu- 
lent art, 1 29 

Let Hartford sigh and say, I've lost a 

treasure, 29 
Little drops of water, little grains of 

sand, 255 

May is a pious fraud of the almanac, 

288 
Men, dying, make their wills, but wives, 

293 

Much of madness and more of sin, 246 

Nature fits all her children with some- 
thing to do, 286 

New England youth, that seems a sort 
of pill, 288 

Now twilight lets her curtain down, 143, 
272 

Of all the notable things on earth, 292 
Of fame a mighty monument, 115 
Oh, fear not, in a world like this, 215 
Oh ! when the angelic choir all gather'd 

round, 11 1 
One natural brother beholds another, 38 
On every leaf the "earnest" sage may 

scan, 275 
On yonder lake I spread the sail no 

more, 76 
Our worthy Captain Lovewell among 

them then did die, 62 



Out, out are the lights — out all, 247 
Over the boundless blue, where joy- 
ously, 180 



Rise, Delia Crusca, prince of bards 
sublime, ii-; 



Sad, The, caressing murmur of the 
wave, 374 

Saints, The, behold with courage bold, 
38 

Skilled to pull wires, he baffled Nature's 
hope, 287 

So that her high-bom kinsmen came, 
248 

Such warmth of fancy once a Maylem 
fired, 66 

Sweetest, The, of perfumes that, lan- 
guishing, flies, 114 

Tender, The, mother will own no 

other, 38 
Then join hand in hand, brave Ameri- 
cans all, 71 
Then up three winding stairs my feet 

were brought, 84 
There are gains for all our losses, 261 
There sighs, complaints, and ululations 

loud, 247 
There the great Planter plants, 189 
These, O sea, all these I 'd gladly 

barter, 335 
They are slaves that dare not be, 280 
They came unto this Indian, who did 

them thus defy, 62 
Those men that vagrants liv'd with us, 

have there deserved well, 18 
Thou mindest me of gentle folk, 274 
Threading a darksome passage all 

alone, 376 
This is the forest primeval. The mur- 
muring pines and the hemlocks, 219 
Thus mourned the hapless man. A 

thundering sound, 92 
Thy "bosom bankrupt ! " — Ah, those 

sorrows cease, 108 
Thy merits, Wolfe, transcend all human 

praise, 67 
Till every lock is luminous, gently 

float, 187 



FIRST LINES OF POEMS QUOTED 395 



'Tis said the gods lower down that 
chain above, 21 

Until from its breast the land, 195 

Waters, The, in unto my soule, 26 
Waves, The, have now a redder glow, 

246 
What w6nder struck us when we did 

survey, 54 
When Amherst there, like Peleus' 

mighty son, 65 



When truth stepped aside, and con- 
science withdrew, 294 

Where in the realm of thought, whose 
air is song, 275 

While the orchestra breathes fitfully, 
246 

Yet in the maddening maze of things, 

39 
Your love in a cottage is hungry, 

145 
You sinters are, and such a share, 37 






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